


Sometimes Life will surprise you. A lot.

by Seven_ducks101



Series: Tales from another universe [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adoption, Father Figures, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Whoniverse | Doctor Who Universe, Whovian (Doctor Who)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 52,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28109595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seven_ducks101/pseuds/Seven_ducks101
Summary: Morgan Flores wasn't exactly thrilled when she was forced to move to London for her father's job. But it wasn't the end of the world. At least she still had the fact that Doctor Who was from the UK to keep her going. It might be annoying but, moving was a normal part of life. What happened next, however, was most definitely not. It was her first day of her second year of high school, and she was of course, at a new school. Not the most ideal start. But then her dad told her that his friend would be driving her to school. And apparently, friend was now synonymous with Danny Pink. Who was very much fictional by the way. As in did not exist. But then came the big question. If Danny Pink from Doctor Who was now real, what and who else was? But most importantly of all: If this did mean what she thought it did, should she even take the opportunity? All of time and space. Anywhere. Anywhen. But risk losing everyone and everything she was in the process.Cross-posted on wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/story/253035768-sometimes-life-will-surprise-you-a-lot
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor & Original Character(s), Jack Harkness & Original Character(s), Missy (Doctor Who) & Original Character(s), Ninth Doctor & Original Character(s), River Song & Original Character(s), Tenth Doctor & Original Character(s), The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Original Character(s), The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Original Female Character(s), Thirteenth Doctor & Original Character(s), Thirteenth Doctor & Original Female Character(s), Twelfth Doctor & Original Character(s), Twelfth Doctor/River Song
Series: Tales from another universe [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064345
Comments: 13
Kudos: 26





	1. Is that how first days of school are supposed to go?

**Author's Note:**

> *Disclaimer* I unfortunately do not own Doctor Who. Obviously...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first (published) fic. Hopefully, it's not trash :) I'm been thinking about this concept for a while now- I really love the trope of a fan getting stuck in the Whoniverse. But the stories were getting a bit repetitive. Either tossed along a timeline or Doctor/oc. Those fanfics are good, but I wanted to see something different. And there just were not enough featuring the twelfth doctor. No doctor/oc romance. Although there may be some other romance in the future. And without further adieu, here it is:

Looking back now, there was exactly one day in Morgan's life that she would never forget. Well, to be fair, there were probably more, but it was this day that was seared into her mind forever. Where everything changed. Ok, that sounded a little cheesy, didn't it? Overdramatic? Melodramatic? Any other annoyingly long words that Morgan could come up with? Yeah, Morgan wasn't going to argue on that one. But unfortunately, that didn't make it any less true.

It was on that day that Morgan Flores took one last look at her room. Small but cozy. Its minimalist design coupled with this fact made it feel almost like home. Almost. It would probably take her a few more months to properly settle into the new house. She turned and started to do a routine check before leaving to go down. Her bed was made, check. Nothing had exploded, check. And, unfortunately, no aliens had come to abduct her. Oh well, maybe next time.

Smoothing out her uniform, Morgan stepped warily towards the stairs. This was going to be her first day of grade ten. New school. New country. New everything. New was not necessarily bad. Actually, new might be good. But no matter how much Morgan tried to logic her way out of this one, she couldn't change the facts. New was scary. Scary and something that Morgan didn't know. She had no way of properly predicting what would happen. But that was ok. Maybe scary was what Morgan needed. Maybe if she was scared enough, a blue box would finally materialize in her backyard to whisk her away. Besides, scared was a superpower. And who didn't want a superpower?

Morgan hopped down the stairs, leaning against the railing as she slid down. She slowed as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Her father stood by the door, on his phone, nervously typing. She sighed, stepping down carefully and coming up behind him. Morgan just stood there, behind him. Waiting. How long would it take him to notice her? She must have been standing there for at least 5 minutes. Still counting, her father still nervously typing as Morgan lay awkwardly behind him. Morgan squashed the wave of disappointment that threatened to wash over her. This was fine, a small setback. She jumped forward deciding to attack him from behind. Wrapping her arms around him, she paused, craning her neck to try to see what he was looking at.

He twitched slightly, startled at the sudden hug. Morgan smirked a little at that. Honestly, that kind of reminded her a little of the twelfth doctor and his distrust of hugs. Although her father was also almost late so... Morgan swallowed a bit awkwardly and stepped back, giving him a sheepish smile. He returned it although his smile said more 'ah yes, I almost forgot that I had to deal with this insane child every day'. Morgan almost laughed a little at that thought but caught herself. He didn't need to know the full extent of her thought process. Her father's dark brown curls bounced as he got ready to vault out the door to work.

"I'm running a little late, Morgan, hurry up, come on," he said, gesturing for her to follow him and hurry up. Morgan nodded curtly, making sure to smile more widely. He worked very hard, and if she looked disappointed that would only make him feel worse. So she had to do her best to make him feel happier. Scrambling to grab something for breakfast, she shoved some toast into her mouth. Morgan ran back to the door, her father already out and standing there waiting.

"Yeah that's ok, don't worry, I'll make sure not to be abducted by aliens," she laughed a little at that but trailed off with an awkward pause. No response, "Not that I'm planning to get abducted by aliens or anything," Morgan added in helpfully at the end. Still no response, "Because, you know, that would just be bad planning," Morgan continued waving her hands as she spoke. Her father looked back to give her an incredulous stare from outside the door. Morgan winced but then followed him out the door. She wasn't being overly talkative today, actually, she was being less talkative than usual. So it really shouldn't bother him that much... Sighing, her father gave a bit of a huff of annoyance at Morgan's continued talking.

"I would already be in that spaceship before they could try to abduct me, to quote: when you're being interrogated, you are the most important person in the room. So show them who's boss, die faster'" Morgan recited. That was the quote, right? Wait did that actually make any sense in the context? Probably not. But one should always try to fit in as many Doctor Who references as one could into a conversation with someone who didn't-

"What?" her father paused for a second his eyebrows furrowed, and he squinted. He probably had been zoned out or something and hadn't been paying attention. Or he was sick of her obscure references. Or both.

"From Doctor Who," Morgan prompted, waving her arms excessively as if that would somehow help him to understand. And then promptly continued to almost slip on the grass, unceremoniously scrambling to right herself. Morgan dusted herself off, although she didn't need to. But sometimes it just felt right to do things like that. Who knew, maybe some of those dust specks were Vashta Nevada?

"Is that the one with Christopher Lloyd?" he asked absentmindedly as he continued to his own car, which was still in the garage. Morgan grumbled a bit, the words not being, well, actual words. Why was he confusing Back to the Future with Doctor Who? He had never watched Doctor Who but like- Ok, maybe her argument didn't make much sense, but it should have made sense therefore it didn't make sense. Infallible logic right there. "Morgan, I don't care how much you grumble but I have to go to work." He paused, turning back to the car parked in their driveway, "My friend here works at your school so he'll be driving you."

Morgan peeked around her father's shoulder to see his friend standing awkwardly beside the car. He waved at Morgan from where he was standing a few meters away. Tall, tailored suit. very teacheresque. (Well, he was a teacher so that did make sense...) Morgan blinked rapidly as her brain finally properly processed the visual stimuli entering her head. Suit. Almost bald short black hair, slightly worried expression. Wait. What the hell? Why was Danny Pink from Doctor Who, or rather, his actor, standing there? Why-what the hell? That didn't make sense. What was her father playing at?

More importantly, why was he standing right here, on her driveway? It had to be the actor right, but that didn't make sense. Maybe he was a lookalike of the actor or something? Wasn't there that one guy that looked a lot like Matt Smith? Yeah, that was probably it. Or she was still asleep and didn't actually have to go to school today, which was a plus, you know. Or somehow her father had managed to become friends with an actor from a very popular show. Not entirely impossible, just highly unlikely. Morgan frowned again.

"What are you doing here," was the first thing that came out of Morgan's mouth before she could think properly. Wait, that wasn't very nice, was it?

"Excuse me?" Danny cried a bit offended. Morgan winced, oops. She frowned a bit too, narrowing her eyes at the man that stood in front of her. Wait, frowning, that wasn't right either. It probably wasn't a good idea to seem standoff-ish in front of her dad's friend. Not exactly the best first impression she could make and- she was still frowning wasn't she? Morgan forced her mouth into a smile and waved back. There. Normal human behaviour. She winced a little at that. The way she was putting it made her seem like an alien. Which to be fair was not entirely false, she was half-alien after all-ish, she still hadn't entirely figured that part out yet. _She probably would never figure that part out._

Morgan let her eyes wander then. Ok, one tree on her front lawn, check, the road to her right, check. Her gaze flew quickly to her hands. One, two, three four, five fingers on each hand. Ok, so then she wasn't dreaming and she had looked in the mirror that morning so, logically whatever was happening was probably not a dream. Logically speaking, there was nothing to worry about. She was probably overthinking things. But unfortunately, telling herself that didn't stop her panicked heartbeat and shallow breathing. Ok, that long pause was getting pretty long; She should probably break the silence before it got weird. _Bit too late for that, idiot._

"Hi, I'm Morgan," Morgan started, shoving out her hand for him to shake. His face was still a bit in shock from her earlier statement but he fixed it quickly into a smile. He then gave a raised eyebrow and stepped forward, returning the gesture and shaking her hand.

"Danny, but Mr. Pink to you at school," He said, releasing her hand as he went to the right side of the car to get in. Morgan stood there frozen as everything went out of focus. Danny Pink? Maybe it was just a coincidence? Right? 

"Danny Pink?" she said dumbly as if she said it could somehow change something. He raised his eyebrow at her and shared a silent concerned look with her father. Great, now they both thought she was annoying or weird. 

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" he said, probably a little more defensive than he had intended. Morgan shook her head adamantly. Morgan walked shakily over to the passenger side, swinging her bag over her shoulder as she sat, putting on her seatbelt. See, normal everyday things. Because everything was normal. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Morgan took a shaky breath inward. And even if what she was thinking was actually the case, Morgan couldn't exactly do anything to change it. But that did not mean that she couldn't do anything at all. One indisputable fact was that this was definitely not normal. Because Danny Pink had just pulled out of her driveway. Danny Pink, fictional character from the TV show Doctor Who. That was definitely not right. 

~~~

Morgan was standing in front of her period one class. The students at the front had been surprisingly helpful, giving her her schedule directions and such. She checked the room number again just to be sure that she had it right. Yes, ok good. She hadn't accidentally gone to the opposite end of the school. That was always a plus. The door was still closed, she had English first. Well, according to the schedule. Schedules had a nasty habit of lying sometimes. But, all of the classes Morgan had chosen seemed to be on the schedule, so this once, it was safe to assume the schedule was being truthful. Morgan took in a deep breath as she tapped her foot, pausing before the door. Would it be weird to go in? Yeah, probably. Being the first in class was always weird, especially on the first day. Morgan swallowed again. The door was... oddly familiar, but every high school door seemed to look the same no matter where it was. _There Morgan went again, skirting around the obvious and inevitable._

Ok so, Danny Pink. well, he didn't just look like Danny Pink. And he didn't just have the name Danny Pink either. He actually acted like Danny Pink. Which was a little concerning because that meant that well, it probably wasn't a coincidence. One strange thing was just a thing. Two strange happenings, that was a coincidence. Everything else seemed to be the same, her dad, the room, every little detail except Coal Hill school and well, Danny Pink. Maybe the school in the show was based on a real one? Maybe-

"Good morning, is this your first day at coal hill? What's your name?" a voice broke Morgan out of her thoughts abruptly. Morgan blinked at the outstretched hand and then slowly brought her gaze up to the face. And blinked. Again. Honestly, Morgan, blinking wasn't going to magically make things disappear. Not everything was a Weeping Angel. Clara Oswald was probably one of the farthest things from a weeping angel one could find. Wait. Clara Oswald? But it couldn't be, could it? Morgan quickly took in her appearance. Round face, large eyes and sidebangs. If it was Clara Oswald, it had to be early series 8 as Danny Pink was still alive and her hair was relatively long and wavy. Ok, two people, maybe that was just a coincidence? Yeah, she was definitely pulling at strings here. That was 3 things so far. And three things signalled a pattern. This was no longer in the realm of coincidences. Morgan gulped slightly before pulling on a wide smile.

"Morgan," she paused, "Are you my English teacher?" she asked, brightly. She needed to make a good first impression if this really was Clara Oswald. Which at this point, it probably was, she should probably stop denying it... Shh, no, goodbye logical part of the brain, your opinion was not asked for. _Doesn't change the facts._

"Yes, Ms. Oswald," Clara clarified, "Sit wherever you like, as no one else seems to be here yet," Clara smiled, unlocking the door and motioning for Morgan to step forward. She hesitated for a moment before peeking her head into the classroom. The window was directly across from the door, the main board to her right. It was a spitting image of the one from the show. Morgan took a few steps forward before choosing herself a seat by the window, at the front of the class. She wore glasses but sometimes it was still a little tricky to see stuff from the back. And besides, windows were really great, one could admire the view.

Morgan set her stuff beside her and settled herself in as she waited for the rest of the class to trickle in. Really, there was only one coherent thought consistently running through the complete mess of others in the head. What. The. Hell. Was. Going. On. Why was her teacher Clara Oswald, why was her dad's friend Danny Pink and why on earth did Coal Hill School suddenly decide to start existing? Morgan paused on that thought another student finally decided to show up. So at least some students seemed to care about their education. Eventually, though, everyone arrived and Clara began to teach the class. Normal everyday first day of school introduction stuff. The words blurred together as the minutes ticked by and a shiver went up her spine. By the time the lesson was done a pit of dread had built up in Morgan's stomach. What was going on? And more importantly, what was she going to do now? No matter how much she attempted to deny it, this was not a dream. Something strange was going on, and Morgan had to get to the bottom of it. Otherwise, who knew what would happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed that:) I'll be posting at least once a week (hopefully) haven't decided which day yet, probably Friday.


	2. Nothing makes sense

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter finally out :) Tell me what you liked/what to improve on in the comments, would really help! I have written a few chapters ahead so hopefully, I will be able to stay pretty regular in my updates, cross my fingers.... And well, here is the chapter:

A room. It was her room. Medium-sized, nothing special. But it was her room, and that was what mattered. And that was also what didn’t make any sense. Her life, her room, her dad. Danny had already dropped her back off at home and it had again been every bit as awkward and quiet as before. Her dad was still at work. The same work. The normal work. The work that had made them have to move all the way from Canada to the UK. How come she still had her life, her house and her dad and yet- And yet everything was different too. 

You wouldn’t notice it if you weren’t looking. Little things, small enough that if Morgan had not gone to school that day and just read a book or watched a movie, she wouldn’t have noticed that anything was wrong. Except that everything was wrong. The first thing Morgan had done when she had gotten home, after of course, taking off her shoes was to run to the living room to open her laptop. The living room was small, and directly behind the kitchen. The light would pour in from the windows to the right of the desk. Her laptop was old, her father had gotten it back in 2014 when Morgan had been only 3 years old. But that wasn't the problem. the problem was that now, it _wasn't_ old. 

It was new, brand new and that had put Morgan off immediately. All shiny and it was missing the random words that Morgan had scratched into it (and then immediately got yelled at for). But it was the same. Model and everything. Even her password was the same, _BacktotheFuture2020_ , ok that was definitely not a very creative password, but she couldn’t exactly think of anything else during that time. She had been _really_ bored during the pandemic, binging way too much Back to the Future and Doctor Who than was probably healthy. To be fair, she was probably not the only one.

But that was the thing. The big glaring problem. Because after she opened her laptop and after she typed in her password and everything. Well, she looked at the date. And the date was all wrong. Like, really, really wrong. September of 2014. 2014. Which made sense, judging by her guess that this was early series 8. But, still wrong. Because it was supposed to be September of 2025. 2014, that was more than six years in the past! 

“2014,” Morgan said aloud, as if that would somehow, change it or help her to understand. She quickly typed out something into google, her hands flying over the keyboard. _Doctor Who_. Nothing showed up except some random actual, medical doctors. She furrowed her eyebrows, furiously typing again. Doctor Blue Box. She waited as the results piled in and- nothing? That didn’t make any sense? Unless the-oh! The Doctor had been erasing himself from every database in the universe to get River out of Stormcage hadn’t he? So, logically, the original website that Rose had found back in 2005 wouldn’t be visible. _Or he didn’t exist in this universe and Clara and Danny just happened to be here._

Because that’s what this was wasn’t it? Another universe. Whatever the case, the Doctor might not exist here. Morgan wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. One part of her- the adventurous, naive part was telling her that the Doctor did exist and then she would be able to travel the whole universe and it would be incredible. And then there was the logical well, scared part of her. She didn’t want to die and well, travelling with the Doctor? That usually resulted in either going back home and missing it for the rest of one’s life or dying a horrible death or something worse. Maybe it was for the best, if he didn’t exist, then she didn’t need to resist temptation.

That was what she wanted, no NEEDED to be true. If the Doctor didn’t exist here, then that was for the best. She could go on living her life and reminisce on how somehow Clara Oswald and Danny Pink from a tv show that no longer seemed to exist had randomly popped into existence one day. She would look back on this and laugh because this wouldn’t really change much. Normal may be boring, but normal was safe and normal was stable. And that was what she needed. At least, that’s what she told herself.

Morgan let out a long sigh and pushed back in her chair, letting the wheels carry it away from the desk. Ok then, well this was weird, definitely not normal but- But once she got used to it, once she settled into the new routine, well everything would be fine. Although it would be a bit annoying without the proper technology she was used to. But she would survive. And most importantly, she would live a relatively NORMAL life. Morgan let out a sigh as everything settled in and fell into place.

* * *

Morgan was running. The wind flew through her hair as she sprinted to class. The cold should have been a shock, except she was a bit preoccupied at the moment. Danny had had to have a meeting that morning, so he couldn’t drive her to school. And her father, coincidentally, because the universe liked to conspire against her, had also had a meeting and of course, he had neglected to wake her up because it had been at like 5:30 am. Which, generally, Morgan appreciated, but a little heads up would have been nice. Morgan had, of course, known about this last night, but of course, she had forgotten. And on top of that, she had also forgotten to set her alarm earlier so that she could walk to school!

So there Morgan was, running, her uniform and some random coat she had haphazardly thrown on that morning strewn across her shoulders, as she panted. She had woken up with her alarm, which was set to 8:00 am. But, the problem was, she had to walk to school that morning. Which was like 5 or 6 blocks away. She was still a little confused as to what a block actually meant, but she would go with that measurement for the moment. 

Well anyway, Morgan had quickly gotten dressed and well shoved some toast into her mouth and sprinted off to school. And now she was going to be late. Which was not great, since she had worked all last night finishing an annoying English essay due today. And no, she hadn’t exactly procrastinated per se, she had mostly been editing it last night. Ok, maybe she had left it to the second last day, which was probably just as bad but that wasn’t important right now. 

When Morgan finally made it to the entrance of the school, it was 8:28. Two minutes until she had to be in class. Morgan sprinted up the stairs, blindly running towards her English class and collided with Clara Oswald. Papers and well, everything, including Morgan’s essay, went flying and Morgan fell backwards to the ground. She landed hard, and her thoughts swam for a moment before she could really think straight again. Pain shot up, but it wasn’t as if she had broken anything. She hadn’t broken anything, right? She slowly wobbled up, starting to quickly and hurriedly pick up all of the papers. 

Morgan’s eyes went wide as the realization hit her. Oh god no, she had just run right into her teacher! That was definitely not a good way to start a day! Clara’s eyes widened immediately after. They almost seemed to bulge out, which explained why the Doctor was always going on about the weird thing that Clara did with her eyes. There was a faint throbbing where she had hit the ground, although it was fading by the minute. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry Ms. Oswald! I was running a little late and well, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. You aren’t hurt or anything are you?” Morgan rambled handing the stack of papers to Clara. 

“No, no it’s fine Morgan!” Clara said while fixing the papers into a more organized stack. “These things will happen, although I’m a bit more worried about whether or not you’re hurt, you took a pretty hard fall there” Morgan gave Clara what hopefully came off as a reassuring smile.

“No, no I’m fine,” Morgan said, just as she froze, spotting someone moving in the distance. Morgan squinted a little at that, narrowing her eyes as Clara seemed to give a glare off to the figure down the hallway. 

“Sorry, just remembered, I left the lesson plan..." Clara almost trailed off for a moment as she seemed to think up an excuse of what to say. "In the break room!” her words were staggered and forced. One thing for sure, that was definitely not the reason she had to leave. Morgan pressed further for details. If that really was the problem, then Clara wouldn’t need to leave in such a hurry.

“ Wait! Ms. Oswald!” Morgan called after Clara’s receding figure. Clara turned around at Morgan’s voice, giving her a smile to continue. “I just wanted to give you my essay that was due today!” Morgan called again. Clara’s mouth hung open for a moment as she thought of what to say. It didn’t make sense that Clara was this flustered, not when before when Morgan ran right into her, she had been fine. Unless… 

“I just gotta get this, I won’t be long! Five minutes at most!” Clara replied as she started to continue in the same direction. The only real explanation was….

“Wait! Ms. Oswald! Sorry to bother you again, what day is it today, I kind of forgot…” the excuse didn’t make too much sense but Morgan had to make sure. And to be fair, she had actually forgotten through all of the rush. Hopefully, Clara wouldn’t read too much into it. Clara’s expression was a bit confused at first but then melted into her normal teacher cheer.

“Oh, it’s Wednesday.”

* * *

The next Wednesday was decidedly calmer. Morgan didn’t have any big essays due, and Danny had been able to drive her to school that morning. So no untimely collisions with English teachers, and no awkward conversation. Well, maybe that last part was wishful thinking. Clara passed Morgan as she walked up to her locker and smiled, waving at Morgan as she passed. She was wearing a normal teacher-outfit, a two-piece suit without a tie and a beige cardigan on top. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

Morgan waved back, smiling widely again at Clara as she passed her. She made her way finally to her locker, the door blocking some of the annoying students' chatter that filled the hall. Honestly, at that point, Morgan probably wouldn’t even be able to hear the fire alarm over all that noise. Her hands brushed the cold metal as she heaved her bag into her locker. It took her at, Morgan’s best estimate, at least five minutes to shove her bag into the tight locker and get out all of the stuff she needed for English class. 

When Morgan had finally finished, she let out a sigh of relief. Morgan rested her back and head on the locker for a few minutes, relaxing after having exerted all of her energy trying to fit her stupid bag into that stupid locker. She let her muscles melt into the locker, and started to fiddle absentmindedly with her hangnails for a moment. Clara came back from the teacher’s lounge right then, bringing all of her stuff. Decidedly much more flustered than before. Not to mention the fact that her entire outfit had changed. In lieu of pants, she wore a pencil skirt and a simple gray blouse, her cardigan nowhere to be found. Morgan frowned at that. There had definitely not been enough time to get all of the materials and change. 

“ Is your locker bringing you trouble?” Clara joked her smile wide. Morgan gave a laugh along with that nodding her head.

“Yeah, my locker never seems to want to cooperate… Is that a new outfit?” Morgan added slowly, trying to gouge Clara’s reaction. Clara went silent for a split-second longer than normal, then replied.

“No, why would it be?” Clara added as if she had never changed outfits at all. Morgan narrowed her eyes for a moment before brushing it off. It seemed Morgan wouldn’t be getting much information out of Clara at that moment. 

“Oh, must just be because you left your jacket in the office, just looked a bit different that’s all.” Clara visibly relaxed her tense shoulders as she nodded along. 

“Yeah, is it just me or is it a bit hot in here?” Clara asked, trying to bring more credibility to her pretty obvious lie. Or at least, obvious to Morgan, who had started monitoring her much more closely on Wednesdays now.

“Yeah… it is… A bit… What are we doing today in class Ms. Oswald?” Morgan changed the subject. Maybe the best way to figure out whether or not Morgan's hypothesis was correct was to lower Clara’s stress and then ask when she least expected it.

“Oh, today we’ll be continuing on our project” Clara started, and Morgan nodded along. Yeah, that made sense, hopefully, Morgan would be able to finish that soon. “And then soon we’ll be reading Pride and Prejudice!” Morgan froze at the last statement. Pride and Prejudice, also known as the book that the class had been working on during the episode ‘The Caretaker’. Which meant if the Doctor did exist in this universe, (which it was seeming more and more likely that he did) Morgan would be meeting him soon.

* * *

The next Wednesday, Morgan was staying after school. Her father was still at work, and Danny had a meeting with all of the other Maths teachers in the Math Department office. So Morgan was left in the teacher’s lounge after school, and sat alone. It was quiet and well, a bit too quiet. Morgan needed something to do. Her fingers itched a bit as her eyes caught something from the corner of her eyes. A piano sat in the corner of the teacher’s lounge by the window. Perfect. 

Morgan stretched her fingers and set them down on the keys, pausing for a second. What should she play? Shouldn’t she be doing English homework right now? Probably. Clara gave moderate amounts of homework and Morgan wasn’t usually a procrastinator. But she was procrastinating right then- Oh

Morgan relaxed her wrists and began to glide them across the keys, closing her eyes as she hummed the melody. It was Clara’s theme from Doctor Who. Morgan had forgotten the official name, but it was soft and playful and really relaxing to play. Morgan continued it smoothly, then restarted it just to play it again. Right as she was about to switch to ‘I am the Doctor’, a voice startled her out of her trance. Her fingers froze, hovering above the keys as Clara came up behind her.

“Hey Morgan, I didn’t know you'd be here…” Clara said, although a bit awkwardly. Morgan tilted her head as Clara stood there by the door to the janitor’s closet. She was standing tense her hands at her sides and her feet bouncing a little as if she was ready to run. Morgan strained her neck just in time to catch a glimpse of something blue… 

“Oh yeah, Danny’s in a meeting with the other Maths teachers,” Morgan offered absentmindedly. She tried to see exactly what was through the door’s window, while also not alerting Clara that she was trying to see it. 

“That’s Mr. Pink to you,” Clara said, although it was less scolding and more playful in tone. Morgan gave a small smile at that. She tore her attention from the door as she replied.

“Oh yeah, Mr. Pink, sorry…” she trailed off as she caught some movement from the corner of her eye. Morgan adjusted her glasses a little as she squinted at the door. It was coming from the door-

“That was a lovely piece you were playing, what was it?” Clara continued. Morgan snapped out of her daze as she nodded. Oh yeah. Well, she couldn’t exactly tell Clara that it was a song from Doctor Who called ‘Clara’...

“Oh, it’s just a theme from a tv show that I watch-” Morgan trailed off as the door suddenly sprang open. Clara jumped a little, but then righted herself as Danny came in through the door. She tucked a piece of her bangs behind her ear as Morgan looked up from the other door to the janitor's closet. Morgan stood up hurriedly, smoothing down her skirt. She made sure her bag was secure and pulled her curls back into a half-hearted ponytail. 

“I finished my meeting Morgan, it’s time to go now,” Danny said, gesturing with his thumb towards the hallway. Morgan nodded and stood to leave. She wouldn't have time to investigate that closet today. Maybe later though. Clara smiled and waved at her as she walked through the door to the hallway. 

“Have a nice rest of your day Morgan!” Clara called out to her. Morgan turned to face Clara and gave her an acknowledging nod. 

“You too Ms. Oswald!” Morgan replied. And judging by the fact that it was Wednesday, Clara would most definitely have an exciting rest of her day. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter! I'll be either posting next Sunday or earlier, so stay tuned! I'm still trying to figure out a good posting schedule. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to post them in the comments!


	3. Nothing will ever be the same again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter finally out :) The next chapter comes out tomorrow!

Everything had started to calm down. Morgan was finally starting to settle into the new routine, and besides some questionable encounters with Clara on some Wednesdays, everything seemed to be running smoothly. She would wake up, go to school, then come back and do her homework and watch tv or other normal activities. She was finally settling into a proper normal pattern.

But she couldn’t deny that something was definitely off with Clara. Logically, from the evidence that Morgan had collected, most Wednesdays Clara seemed to act weird or Morgan would notice something moving behind a door. And, from what she knew from the show, she could logically piece together that it was the Doctor. 

But could she really rely on information she had gotten from a show? Just because Clara and Danny were both here, didn’t necessarily mean that the Doctor was here too. Although the evidence to support that theory was building up significantly…. Morgan slammed her locker door at that, silencing her stray thoughts. 

No, right now, she needed to focus on her schoolwork. She needed to focus on her new life and she needed to focus on the things that mattered. Or rather the things that weren’t wild delusional fantasies. If there were infinite universes out there, there must be at least one where Clara and Danny existed, but the Doctor did not. That was the least… Well, that was the least crazy explanation. Although, to be fair, ending up in another universe somehow in the first place was crazy enough as it was. She was a bit pulling at strings here about what she was considering ‘crazy’ and what she was considering normal. 

Morgan sighed and started down the hallway, not really paying much attention to where she was headed. She weaved through the students, melting into the background noise. It was strangely comforting in a way, it showed that she wasn’t alone. Morgan was about to turn right, about to continue mindlessly pacing the hallways. Then, all of a sudden, a noise interrupted her thoughts.

Morgan’s breath caught in her throat and she froze. She turned slowly to face where the sound was coming from; a service closet down the more abandoned hallway. She held her breath as the sound continued, not daring to breathe. It was an almost musical sound to Morgan’s ears, although to anyone else it would just sound like a wheezing or groaning. It was the sound of hope, a sound that before would have only indicated someone watching some tv. But now?

Morgan took careful steps towards the door, her hands shaking and sweaty. She let them hover right in front of the handle, afraid that if she breathed too hard or opened the door it would destroy the illusion. That it would all just disappear. She slowly opened the door, making sure that it didn’t creak at all. And it was all almost all ruined when a figure started running down the hallway towards it. 

She quickly ducked behind the door as Clara marched into the small room. Her breathing stayed heavy and it took her a few moments to regain her composure. She slowly moved towards the door, which was open by a crack, holding her breath again, shaking. Her hand brushed the edge of the cool door as she pulled it open slightly enough for her to peek her eyes through. 

The first thing her eyes met when she looked through that door, was the big blue box. She was tall and blue, almost exactly like she had been described in the show. There was a faint hum coming from the TARDIS, low and steady, calming even. Morgan’s nerves finally started to relax as she stared out that crack. Her breathing grew less heavy and her muscles less tense. Morgan sent the box a grateful smile as she prepared for what awaited her next.

And then... Well... There stood the madman, with his box in the corner, his gray hair short and his jacket long and dark, with some red peeking out from underneath. He held two coffees in his hand and there was a sort of wind in his hair as if he’d recently been running. His eyebrows were curved and wild- attack eyebrows if you will, Morgan smiled again at that. And well, his eyes, there was a distance to them. As if they were coming from far away. They were old, so old, but they were kind too. They had seen so many people die and the whole wide universe. And he kept going through it all. He was the Doctor, and well, Morgan would definitely not be able to ever dream up of something like this. He was real. 

“Where the hell have you been?” Clara demanded, Morgan frowned, wracking her brain for where she’d heard that before. Honestly, most conversations between Clara and the Doctor went along those lines in series 8. And then she almost facepalmed at the Doctor’s response.

“You sent me for coffee.” was his only explanation. God, he really needed to learn to read social cues. Morgan would have to rectify that when she- sorry if she decided to travel or even if he let her. Because, well, would he even? It wasn’t as if she were anyone special. And she wasn’t even smart or well, significant in any way shape or form. Besides being from another universe. 

And yet a part of her still desperately clung to that ideal, grasped onto it as if it were a string securing her to the rest of reality. Because it was, wasn't it? The only proper thing from her own universe in a way. Yeah, she still had her dad and her house but recently… She had noticed slight differences, she couldn’t really properly place them but… They were still there. And of course, there was the part of her who had always wanted to travel the universe. Who had imagined scenarios and daydreamed about meeting famous celebrities and going to alien planets. She had the power right then to choose that. To see and experience things she couldn’t have even fathomed before. 

“Three weeks ago. In Glasgow.” Clara rebutted her voice sharp as her annoyance seemed to grow. Morgan blinked and stayed there, taking in the scene before her.

“Three weeks, that’s a long time…” The Doctor stated the obvious. Wow really? No kidding Doctor. 10 out of 10 for observational skills! Have a gold star! Honestly, at this point, the Doctor was stating the obvious more than Morgan usually did! Morgan froze again at that thought, shivering again. The Doctor. Because he was real, everything was real. Morgan checked her fingers once again just to make sure. One, two three, four, five fingers on each hand. She took another shaky breath in an attempt to calm herself. Then Morgan tuned back into their conversation, trying to figure out what had happened in the meantime. 

They had now gone back into the TARDIS, but Morgan could still somewhat make out the majority of their conversation from where she stood. She pressed herself closer to the door to try to hear more. 

“Why were you smiling?” the Doctor asked Clara, and Morgan sighed. Ah, Danny. Morgan hadn't found the time to properly interrogate-err, question him about whether or not he liked Clara but she would try soon. Although he might get a little annoyed that she was asking random, pretty personal questions. To be fair, most of the students already seemed to be shipping them together, Morgan shook her head at that in amusement. 

“Was I? No, I wasn’t.” Clara retorted quickly. Morgan rolled her eyes at Clara’s obvious deflection. The Doctor may not understand social cues but he wasn’t blind. 

“You were smiling at nothing.” the Doctor remarked again. Morgan almost wanted to clap at that. Good job Doctor! Finally some keen social deduction! Next, you’ll actually be able to properly tell what emotions people are feeling. “I'd almost say you were in love, but to be honest.” The Doctor continued. Wow, he actually did tell what emotions she was feeling! Maybe he didn’t need the lesson on social etiquette and how to understand human body language after all! Ok, maybe Morgan was being a little hard on him in her head. She hadn’t even properly met him yet! She was getting way ahead of herself. 

“Honest?” Clara asked and again Morgan froze. She still hadn’t properly been able to place what episode this was yet. It was sort of ringing a bell, but the dialogue would be something they could say in any episode honestly. 

“You're not a young woman anymore.” The Doctor stated as if it were completely obvious. Except that she was most definitely still a young woman. Morgan shook her head sighing as Clara began her retort. 

“ Yes, I am.” Clara raised her voice, indignant and teetering over the edge. Morgan couldn’t exactly blame her. 

Their pointless arguing carried on for another few minutes. Morgan elected to ignore it, it was a bit frustrating that they were still talking about that. Didn’t they have better, more interesting things to talk about? Or things that would help her actually figure out where they were in the series like, ‘ _Oh Doctor it seems that we are going to Sherwood to meet Robots today’_ or _‘I’d like to go on a Time Heist right about now’._ Morgan froze as they finally seemed to get off the topic and cocked her head to hear them better from inside the TARDIS.

“You’re scared,” Clara stated and Morgan tilted her head as she wracked her brain again. It seemed this was not from one of the Youtube video clips that she re-watched constantly for an unhealthy amount of time. 

“I'm terrified.” The Doctor confessed.

“Of what?” Clara asked, voicing Morgan’s own thoughts. What was so terrifying that the Doctor was scared.

“The answer to my next question, which must be honest and cold and considered, without kindness or restraint.” the Doctor started. “Clara be my pal and tell me,” _am I a good man? “_ Am I a good man?” Morgan’s thoughts echoed his words at the same exact cadence and pitch. Into the Dalek. That’s what this was. And Clara, Clara didn’t know the proper answer to that question. Because it wasn’t a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. This was her chance. In a few moments, they would be off flying and she would have lost it again. But was she really brave enough to go? In theory, yes but in practice? She could actually die, this was real and it was actually dangerous. And honestly, that was terrifying. Morgan didn’t get a chance to figure out what would’ve happened if she’d gone at that moment. And before she knew it, the sound was back. The wheezing and groaning. And just like that, the TARDIS was gone again.

* * *

Two weeks later, Morgan was going out. Not on a date or anything, just with friends. Well, friends was a stretch. Courtney had organized a little excursion with a few other girls because apparently Clara and Danny were finally going on a date. Ok, it wasn’t as weird as it sounded. They were just going out and checking in on them. Morgan wouldn’t judge them on their questionable life choices. Besides, that wasn’t why Morgan was going. No Morgan was going because the first date between Clara and Danny took place during an episode. This was another chance, and if she took it, well, the whole universe awaited her. 

So there Morgan was, putting on some makeup and making her hair. She decided on something casual yet, not too casual, just some jeans and a t-shirt. Well, a back to the future t-shirt. She wasn’t going to compromise her nerdiness for a couple of random girls from school. Morgan sighed as she checked that all of her hair was secured nicely in her bun then checked her phone for any messages.

Courtney had already messaged her, telling her that she’d meet her at the place that Clara and Danny were going out for their drink. Morgan rolled her eyes at that. They were seriously still stuck on that, weren’t they? Speaking of Courtney, the show had been right, at school, she was really annoying. She would never listen to the teachers and would always disturb Morgan’s science and music and math classes. Why couldn’t Courtney go disturbing the classes that weren’t Morgan’s favourite? 

Surprisingly though, outside of class, she was significantly less annoying. She still cracked jokes, sure, but she didn’t interrupt everyone at every breath. Although she still did think of weird plans. Exhibit A: randomly going to spy on their teachers. Honestly, if Morgan hadn’t wanted to try to give it another attempt she would never have gone in the first place. Morgan sighed as she sent the confirmation text. This was most definitely a terrible idea.

* * *

Morgan stood outside of the place where Danny and Clara were having their drink. The air was cold and crisp, Morgan shivered. She really should have brought a coat or something. Morgan craned her neck to try to gauge what part of the conversation they were at. They seemed to be laughing hysterically at something and Morgan smiled. For some reason, she only ever seemed to remember specific parts if they were funny, or really important. And in this instance, they were talking about Courtney, weren’t they? Morgan hid a smile as she turned to where Courtney and the rest of the girls were beside her.

“What do you reckon they’re laughing about?” Courtney asked one of the other girls, as they pretended to walk casually past the restaurant or whatever it was. Morgan held in a snort at that.

“No idea…” Morgan said trailing off. That was a lie. They were talking about Courtney right then, oh god that was so ironic. Courtney narrowed her eyes at Morgan as she tucked a piece of her black hair behind her ear. 

“What’s so funny?” Courtney asked, probably catching on to Morgan’s almost laughter. “What's that shirt you’re wearing.” Courtney then continued, apparently having only just noticed Morgan's wardrobe choices. She eyed Morgan’s mismatched outfit strangely. Or rather, abnormal attire. 

“Oh, this?” Morgan asked, gesturing to her shirt, “Oh it’s just a back to the future shirt, I wanted to wear my Doctor Who shirt but I couldn’t find it.” Good, Morgan had officially thoroughly confused Courtney with that comment. She smirked a little at that. Technically it wasn’t a lie, she couldn’t find her Doctor Who shirt anymore, well probably because it didn’t exist anymore but Courtney didn’t need to know that. 

“Doctor Who?” Courtney asked and Morgan’s grin grew wider at her confused expression. That was pure gold, she hadn’t even thought of that when she’d first casually mentioned it. This was just perfect.

“Exactly,” Morgan said, winking although Courtney had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Morgan let out a sigh. Honestly, that was perfect and it was wasted because no one could possibly understand what she was talking about. 

Morgan’s attention returned quickly to Clara as she marched out of the building, her heels clicking on the ground. Morgan winced, ok so the argument had occurred. Morgan blinked again, finally noticing that the other girls had gone at least 10 meters ahead of her. Morgan ducked beside the building as the future Clara came back to the restaurant, opening the door and going back to see Danny. 

Morgan sucked in a breath as she spotted the Doctor watching Clara’s figure as it disappeared into the restaurant. This was her chance. All she had to do was walk forward and talk to him. All she had to do was- no Her heart was pounding and her breathing had become ragged again. No, no, no, no, no she couldn’t do it. Why was she so scared, why- just no. And then Morgan broke off into a run. She ran towards the receding figures of her classmates. Then there was that sound again. That wonderful sound. And just like that, the TARDIS was gone. She had lost her chance yet again. And as Morgan drifted off to sleep that night, her mind replayed the scene in her head. The Doctor, the TARDIS. The sound of the TARDIS dematerializing, leaving nothing but air behind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter! Again, next one comes out tomorrow so stay tuned!


	4. Ice cream, sunglasses and electric guitars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or alternatively: What happens when Morgan doesn't stay in the staff room during a meeting. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 is out! Next chapter will be out next Sunday at the latest. Hope everyone enjoys it :)

Morgan’s opportunity finally came during the most unlikely of times. It was another meeting, but this time it was a staff meeting. A staff meeting for all of the teachers and the rest of the staff. Which meant that the teacher’s lounge and staff room were currently unavailable. So then, to Morgan’s great delight, Danny told her that she could go out and do well, whatever she wanted. Well, nothing illegal and to stay generally close to the school. There were definitely a lot of loopholes in that, that Morgan would definitely NOT exploit. 

Morgan had explored the school a bit after the meeting had first started but then inevitably gotten a bit bored. There was only so much that one could do in a school. The meeting was supposed to last 4 hours. 4 hours. What on earth was Morgan supposed to do for 4 hours? She could go somewhere but there wasn’t exactly anyone she could go with, no friends and her dad was still at work. Morgan sighed. 

Before she could really process where her legs were taking her, she was already outside. Morgan inhaled the fresh air and walked over to the bench by the school entrance. She may not have much to do, but being outside was objectively going to be more interesting than being inside. Morgan let her gaze drift towards the sky, taking it all in. It was a beautiful clear sky that morning, all blue will only a few clouds, all fluffy and bright dotting the sky. Morgan smiled at that.

Someone sat beside her on the bench at that moment, but Morgan wasn’t really paying attention to them. The clouds in the sky showed that one didn’t always have to have good things happen 100% of the time to be happy. That one should be happy when they could and use the fact that they might be sad the next day to motivate them. Because what was the knowledge that tomorrow one might be sad other than a reason to be even happier today? Morgan pondered on that for a moment before being abruptly interrupted by the loud strumming of an electric guitar.

She almost jumped and looked around alarmed. Oh, right, the person who had sat next to her earlier. She should probably acknowledge their presence. Morgan turned to give them a smile or nod or something but froze mid-smile. It was- but it couldn’t be. Her brain couldn’t compute the information her eyes were feeding to her. Grey hair, attack eyebrows, guitar strung around his shoulder and sunglasses peeking out from where they hung on his coat. It took at least another minute for her brain to process the information into a coherent thought. It was the Doctor? Morgan wasn’t ready for this! Why did he have to go sit next to her? Wasn’t there some other bench with no Morgan on it that he could sit on instead?

“You’ve been a little frozen there for a while, I’d be a little worried, but you don't-” the Doctor started but Morgan cut him off. Wait Morgan cut him off- that wasn't right. 

“Uh hello.” Morgan got out trying to force her contorted expression into a smile or something less surprised. This was not how she pictured this would go. Ok, how does one talk to people again? Oh right uh names “Who are you?” no, no, no, that wasn’t right! No, it was supposed to be, what is your name or, Hello my name is Morgan. “My name is Morgan.” Morgan stuck her hand out for him to shake in an effort to regain some semblance of normality. If that was even possible in a situation like this. 

“I’m the Doctor,” he returned her shake and gave her one of his signature grins and Morgan couldn’t help but smile back. At least that lessened her nerves a little bit. 

“Doctor Who?” Morgan tried, what did you think that she was not going to use this opportunity? The Doctor grinned again at that and Morgan had to hold in her involuntary eye roll. Then Morgan quickly corrected herself and had to remind herself, that they hadn’t actually met yet, Morgan didn’t know who he was. Or at least, she wasn’t supposed to know who he was. “So, what brings you here?” Morgan continued, trying to gauge what a normal person who had no clue who the Doctor was would say in this situation.

“Morgan, I’m not an idiot,” the Doctor continued and Morgan was a bit startled at his use of her name so quickly. Unfortunately, though, she couldn’t hold back her involuntary response this time.

“Could’ve fooled me…” Morgan muttered then stared at him wide-eyed, finally realizing she said that aloud. A manic grin spread across the Doctor’s face again and Morgan started to shrink back. This was not how the Twelfth Doctor usually acted with people he had just met. Usually, he would just insult them if they said something stupid or just well, ignore them. 

“You know, Morgan I’d think you’d be a bit more perceptive than this!” he continued, Morgan shrugged hoping that maybe if she just smiled and nodded she would be able to get through this without seeming like a complete idiot. “Well, can’t say I blame you, I am, well me!” he said the last part as if it was some sort of joke and she was supposed to get the punchline now. Or like with River when she wasn’t catching on that he was the Doctor! OH! He was the Doctor, but just not from the same point in his timestream that she had seen a couple of weeks ago. 

“You’re crossing your own timestream, aren’t you? Are you supposed to do that?” Morgan asked, furrowing her eyebrows in thought. This wasn’t the series 8 Doctor, she should have seen that from the start, guitar? Possible, but sonic sunglasses? 

“Well, technically but let's not delve too much into the technicalities!” the Doctor replied waving his arms as a sign that he was dismissing the matter. _Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey stuff._

“I take it you know me?” Morgan asked. The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her and Morgan couldn’t help but agree with his earlier statements. He definitely would be able to take bottle-tops off with those eyebrows. 

“No, I just randomly decided to talk to some stranger on a bench, yes, of course, I know you!” the Doctor’s Scottish accent intensified just then and he finally slipped on his sunglasses to complete the whole package. 

“I haven't met you yet though,” Morgan continued and the Doctor raised an eyebrow again. Ok, so he knew that already. Which meant that he also knew about the show. 

“Well of course you haven’t met me yet!” the Doctor said, “You would have already gotten annoyed at me or slapped me or something like that already if you did, and besides. A little birdy told me that today was a perfect day for some ice cream.” This time it was Morgan’s turn to raise an eyebrow. 

“You mean me?” Morgan asked as her stomach adamantly agreed with the Doctor. Yes please, ice-cream now. Morgan sighed and shook her head. He was right, after all, there was never a bad time for ice cream. 

“Oh, now, you're going all spoiling the surprise, but yes it was you.” the Doctor stood up and pulled Morgan’s hand to make her stand up too. She wobbled a bit as he started leading her away but soon found her footing again. 

“Uh, Doctor, I don't have any money on me right now.” Morgan tried to point out. The Doctor stopped suddenly breaking his pace. The sudden halt broke Morgan’s balance and she had to grasp onto his arm to right herself again. Honestly, why couldn't he be consistent in his pace? 

“Ah, yes, but that’s not a problem now is it?” he continued, “Because, I have brought money!” the Doctor reached into his jacket at that point, pulling out a credit card and holding it as if, if he held it too hard it would shatter. Morgan raised her eyebrow at that. Since when did the Doctor carry around money?

“You’re telling me that you actually brought money, you, the Doctor, who never carries money ever.” Morgan retorted, snorting at the absurdity. The Doctor, of course, shot Morgan an extremely offended look at that, spluttering a bit before forming a coherent sentence. 

“I do carry money around!” was the Doctor’s rebuttal. Morgan rolled her eyes. She and he both knew that that was a lie. Rule number 1: The Doctor Lies. “Have some faith in your D- Doctor, Morgan” The Doctor continued and Morgan was a bit off-put by the strange wording but brushed it off. They started off towards the ice cream place again as Morgan shook her head. She laughed a little at that and shot him a smile which he returned. Morgan shivered a little as a cold gust of wind came from behind. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled as she got a few goosebumps. Morgan shivered, hugging herself tightly. The Doctor glanced at her then, eyeing her lack of coat.

“You forgot to bring a coat today didn’t you?” the Doctor asked, although it was obviously rhetorical. He let out a long overdrawn sigh, “Why do you never bring a coat, Morgan! Soon we’ll be stuck on some ice planet with a cool amusement park or something but you’ll be too busy freezing to death!” His volume rose and his accent thickened as he progressed. Morgan shot the Doctor a glare at that remark but then paused. Why would they be going to an amusement park on an ice planet anyway? Why not just go to a non-ice planet?

“Why would we go to an amusement park on an ice planet?” Morgan questioned trying to emphasize the words ‘ice planet’. The Doctor, of course, completely ignored her emphasis or just didn’t notice as he went on about something completely different. 

“Well, because ice planets are cool! Also isn’t that what you children do these days? Go to amusement parks on ice planets?” the Doctor continued. He slowed his pace slightly as she began to lag behind a bit. Morgan shivered again as another gust of wind blew in. But this time it decided to blow her hair around and somehow a strand ended up in her mouth. It was a few more minutes and an excessive amount of blowing later until Morgan could finally respond.

“No? And I’m not a child Doctor, I’m a teenager, 14 years old!” Morgan cried indignantly. She waved her arms around trying to emphasize her point. 

“No, you’re 7,” the Doctor insisted and Morgan had to stop in her tracks to properly give him the full extent of her exasperated look. No! Morgan was not 7 years old! What- Didn’t he call Courtney-who was almost the same age as Morgan, 30 years old? When she was 15? How come now, Morgan was suddenly 7 years old.

“No Doctor, I’m 14!” Morgan said, rolling her eyes. At that point though, she was no longer really annoyed; it was more playful banter. Although sometimes it was a bit difficult to discern when the Doctor was actually being serious or not. 

“You sure? Aren’t you a bit too short?” the Doctor asked, indicating her height with his hand. Morgan tried to shoo it away but he had already moved it safely away from Morgan’s grasp. His small smile indicated that he was indeed joking, at least a bit, but it was still annoying. 

“I’m not that short Doctor,” Morgan bit back while the Doctor shifted course and elected to pull her along with him instead of waiting for her to catch up. This made Morgan stumble again and she had half a mind to slap him or something. What would Donna do in this situation? Always the best thing to ask oneself. In Morgan’s opinion, one should always aspire to be like Donna, especially when dealing with the Doctor. 

“That’s right! Keep your spirits up!” Then the Doctor added, almost as an afterthought. “Ok, it’s annoying you keep shivering, soon you’re going to make me start shivering with all your shivering. Here” Then the Doctor reached into his pocket, rummaged around for a while then pulled out… Her jacket? Morgan blinked.

“That’s my jacket.”Morgan stuttered dumbly. Stating the obvious much? The Doctor raised his eyebrow at her statement and Morgan prepared herself for the sarcastic retort. 

“10 out of 10 for observational skills,” the Doctor said. Morgan shrugged it off and pulled her beige coat around herself, the fluff immediately blocking out the harshest of the winds. The Doctor then patted her shoulder as he led her into the small shop, sitting down at one of the seats by the window, with a nice view of the cozy street. It was small, and somehow kind of reminded her of Clara’s coffee shop, but was different and smaller with round tables and couches attached to the walls. 

She sat across from the Doctor as he attempted to order them some ice cream, but Morgan ended up cutting him off halfway through as he began to go on a tangent about Barcelona. The space one. This seemed to thoroughly confuse and terrify the poor waitress at the same time, who kept checking her watch. It was probably the end of her shift soon, so if they hurried up with their order she’d be able to get off and fully enjoy the rest of her day. 

“He wants vanilla, and I want chocolate” Morgan clarified, shaking her head at the Doctor’s thoroughly offended look. He could go on about Barcelona where the dogs had no noses when they weren’t trying to order something. The waitress nodded, sending Morgan a relieved thank you, and Morgan gave her a smile as she rushed away to relay their orders. 

“What d’you do that for! I thought you liked Barcelona!” the Doctor asked, genuinely confused. Morgan sighed and massaged her temples. 

“I do like Barcelona Doctor! But you were scaring that poor waitress half to death!” Morgan cried, exasperated.

“What waitress?” the Doctor asked again, looking around and under the table as if the waitress would randomly be hiding underneath it. 

“The waitress that just took our orders? For the ice cream?” Morgan tried, but the Doctor just gave her a blank confused stare so Morgan shook her head. “Ok, then since you obviously deleted her from your memory, so uh where are you… right now..?” Morgan tried, attempting to do a River-esque voice. It didn't really work and unfortunately, Morgan didn’t exactly have a book or diary or anything. She should probably get one to write all that she remembered from the episodes or something. 

“Well, where are you right now?” the Doctor asked instead, avoiding the question. Or just trying to get Morgan to think he was avoiding the question to annoy her. Or something. Oh right mouth, it had to make words, didn’t it? 

“Well, I’ve been watching Clara closely and from what I can gather, I’m somewhere after Listen.” Morgan said, then continued to analyze, “Although Time-Heist could have already happened because you picked Clara from her house for that one…” Morgan trailed off and turned to the Doctor. He was grinning again. Morgan gave him a pointed stare and his eyes widened as if to ask if he was supposed to speak. Yes, Doctor, you are supposed to speak now.

“Oh Time-Heist, that one was a fun one wasn’t it?” the Doctor grinned again and continued “I robbed a bank in that one you know? I don't think I’ve ever robbed a bank before that… Well, not that I can remember at the moment…” the Doctor trailed off, furrowing his eyebrows deep in thought. Morgan smiled, at that point, she would not be able to discern whether or not Time Heist had happened. Well, unless she asked Clara but that wasn’t really a viable option. Basically, she’d have to wait until the Caretaker. And really, well... She’d have no choice but to meet the Doctor in that one. Wednesday morning she had English and well, the Doctor would be literally entering her classroom. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by a bowl of ice cream being carefully placed in front of her by the waitress. Morgan grabbed the smooth cool glass bowl and brought it closer to her. Fingering the spoon a bit, she thanked the waitress and turned back towards the Doctor. 

“So, you still haven’t exactly told me where you are yet?” Morgan said, taking a spoonful of her ice cream. The Doctor put on his thinking face and took his own spoonful as he thought of his reply. 

“Well it's a bit complicated, I’m trying to think of something that happened recently that you’d know…. “ the Doctor trailed off for a bit after that. He stared intently at his own spoon as if that would suddenly give him the answer. He wasn’t planning on stealing it was he? HE already had a spoon and that spoon had already won him a sword fight before. “Oh yes! I’ve got it!” he exclaimed after a bit, “The Zygon one, you knew the Zygon one right?” the Doctor asked cautiously. The Zygon Invasion/Inversion two-parter? Ok, that sort of made sense since he still remembered Clara but had his guitar and sunglasses, so it had to be series 9. 

“Yeah, I remember that one…” Morgan said while trailing off. That one would be a bit complicated wouldn’t it? She would have to write it all down and figure out what she was going to have to do for that one later. 

“Yeah, you should write that one down, and be careful, especially when you go to the beach! Water can be dangerous you know!” the Doctor said while Morgan raised an eyebrow. Why was he telling her this? There had to be a reason, no matter how subtle. 

“Are you saying that I have to be careful during that epis-adven-invasion? During the Zygon thing? Or are you just showing your strange disdain for beaches?” Morgan asked, trying to be as straight to the point as she could. The Doctor, instead of being taken aback, seemed to be expecting her reply and quickly thought up a lame excuse. And yes, it was not good. That was an objective fact.

“No, I’m just telling you to be careful in general, take your coat, for example, you need to wear it more often!” The Doctor said, “And listen, yes you should listen to me more often too, you know I’m very wise.” the Doctor continued his tangent whale nodding to his own statement as if to say ‘ _very wise yes, that bits very important’._

“Doctor, I can take care of myself, and you’re not right all of the time..” Morgan pointed out. The Doctor shook his head as if to indicate the ‘absurdity’ of her statement. 

“Well, the first part of your statement is questionable, and you’re right on the second part but I’m definitely more right than you are,” the Doctor argued, waving his hand dismissively on her first remark. Morgan raised an eyebrow at that and had to fight to cross her arms. 

“You may be more than 2000 years old Doctor, but I’m not incompetent. I’d like to think that I’m a pretty good teenager myself,” Morgan said and then nodded to her own statement. Although she didn’t have that many to compare herself to. The people in her English class though, well how to describe them. Well, they thought they knew everything but really didn’t know much at all and just wouldn’t shut up about useless things while others were trying to learn actual useful skills. Ok, now that she thought about it, they weren’t all that bad. Just maybe a bit annoying at times. 

“Well you aren’t completely stupid” the Doctor decided. Morgan gave a sigh at that. Well to be fair, being called ‘Not completely’ by the Doctor was actually pretty good. Add that to the list of things that she would have to teach the Doctor: How to give a proper compliment that wouldn’t make people want to strangle him. 

“Thanks, I guess,” Morgan said, putting another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and licking the excess off of her lips. IT was creamy and melted on her tongue. Morgan revelled in the taste and the sweet but not too sweet taste. Chocolate ice cream was the best. And that was an indisputable fact. Well, it should be an indisputable fact. Well, if someone disputed it they should be prepared to face Morgan’s wrath. 

“How are your friends at school doing?” the Doctor tried to ask and Morgan scrunched her nose at that. Well, did she really have any real friends? Not really, Courtney didn’t really count as they didn’t really hang out much. 

“Well, I don’t really have many well, unless Courtney counts…” Morgan trailed off. 

“Courtney? Is that the annoying one?” The Doctor questioned but didn’t really wait for Morgan’s answer before continuing, “Isn’t she the one that threw up in my TARDIS? I don’t really like her.” the Doctor finished, as if that was the final word and verdict on Courtney. Honestly, Courtney wasn’t that bad, she was actually pretty nice out of school, she just found teachers a bit annoying. Morgan couldn’t exactly blame her. The Doctor was being a bit too harsh on her. 

“Courtney’s not that bad! Besides," Morgan continued, “Who decided that you get a say in who I hang out with,” Morgan snapped, recoiling a little from the table and turning her gaze to the window instead.

“I did!” the Doctor replied as if that was a good enough explanation. Or rather, as if that somehow meant anything. 

“Oh what and you’re in charge?” Morgan said. ‘ _TARDIS, Timelord, yeah. Donna, Human, No.’_ her mind helpfully filled in. The Doctor sighed at this and Morgan gave a small smile realizing she had inadvertently quoted Donna. But no one would ever be there to appreciate her quote, would they? Because the show didn’t even exist anymore. 

“You're quoting something aren’t you.” the Doctor said as a statement. It wasn’t a question there was a certainty to his words. 

“No, I’m not,” Morgan quickly retorted, crossing her arms and eyeing him warily. Why would he think that? Well, she had quoted but how would he know? 

“Yes you were, you had you're quoting face on,” the Doctor added helpfully. Quoting face? What did that even mean? 

“Quoting face?” Morgan asked, narrowing her eyes at him. The Doctor shrugged as he began to explain.

“You quote something and then you smile because you thought of something clever to say and then frown because you realize no one is there to appreciate it! It’s your quoting face!” The Doctor was doing his arm wavy explanation thing now and Morgan paused before answering. Well, he wasn’t wrong, but that was awfully perceptive of him. If he was currently in series 9, they couldn’t have known each other for that long yet. Right? 

Morgan’s gaze flitted to the window at that moment. She was about to turn back to the Doctor when something caught the corner of her eye. Oh no. It couldn’t be. Morgan froze as she stared out that window, unable to tear her eyes away. It was Clara. Clara and Danny. And Morgan was in an ice cream parlour with the Doctor, who Morgan technically had not met yet. But most importantly, Clara was there and either Morgan was going to find a clever way to hide the Doctor or somehow figure out a way to explain to her teacher why she even knew him in the first place. Well, this was going to be fun! 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed that! If you have any suggestions or something feel free to put them in the comments below! Anyway, next chapter will be out next Sunday at the latest so stay tuned!


	5. Everything good ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fifth chapter is out! Hope everyone enjoys it! Comment below if you have any suggestions or anything! Next chapter comes out tomorrow! (hopefully, if I actually finish it on time....)

Morgan sat frozen by the window for a few more minutes before gaining her composure. She snapped back into reality, swivelling her head to face the Doctor right as he was about to continue talking about quoting or something like that. She pinned him with her glare or at least attempted to. Honestly, at that point, it probably resembled much more a terrified deer or something. That was a bit random. Morgan would come up with a better metaphor/analogy later. Ok, she needed to calm down and think fast. Because that’s what the Doctor would do right? Well, he was right there but right then it was probably in the best of both of their interests that they used the least amount of time possible. 

The Doctor was wearing his normal outfit, of course, there didn’t seem to be anything out of place. Morgan squinted harder, her eyes flitting across the room. There were two exits in the ice cream parlour, one in the front and one in the very back slightly hidden behind a wall past the bathrooms. Morgan made a quick note of that. There had to be something that Morgan was missing! Something that- Oh! As the Doctor shifted a bit, she finally got it, on his wrist. It was a watch, but not just any watch, it was specifically the invisibility watch from the Caretaker. How awfully convenient. 

“Doctor, hand, now,” Morgan said, motioning with her own hand for him to give her his. She sighed when he raised an eyebrow instead of complying with her request. Actually, it wasn’t a request, there wasn’t any choice in it. They didn’t exactly have any time! 

“Why d’you need my hand for, haven’t you got your own hand already, don’t humans only need two hands?” the Doctor rambled and then froze slightly as his gaze caught the window. Morgan took that opportunity to grab his hand while he was talking. The Doctor gave her an offended expression at that again, looking down and doing that weird thing with his mouth where he would sputter and be about to form words but no words would come out. 

“Doctor, this is important, stop asking questions, maybe follow your own rules for once…” Morgan trailed off as she tried to fumble with the buttons for a bit. How did that stupid watch work! It had looked so easy to work on the show! The Doctor sighed, and snatched his hand back, quickly pressing a few buttons on the watch while the waitress went to the back of the shop. Morgan let out a sigh of relief and fell back into her chair as the Doctor disappeared from view. Phew, that was one problem solved. Now only about an infinite amount left! 

Ok, now what they needed to do was get out of there so that Clara wouldn’t see them at all. Morgan turned to where she thought the Doctor was for a second to tell him to get to the back exit and give her the credit card. 

“Doctor, ok, meet me by the bathrooms and I uh, need the credit card quickly-” she was cut off by a card being given to her in her hands. Morgan grasped onto it and gave the invisible Doctor an awkward smile. Hopefully, she wasn’t just smiling at thin air. That would be very embarrassing. Morgan made a quick beeline for where the waitress was, quickly tapping the card on the bill as she passed the waitress, giving her a smile. Ok, now to get to the exit, Clara was almost in direct view of the shop now, if she hurried she could- Clara turned exactly at that moment and turned to face the window of the ice cream shop. Thankfully she and Danny were still being pretty oblivious and smiling at each other like idiots, but they weren’t looking at her. And that was the important part. 

She ducked behind one of the couches and speed-walked to the back entrance just as Clara and Danny were entering. Morgan swung open the back door and was pulled outside swiftly by a hand. When Morgan was safely outside the back door, she collapsed to her knees, taking in deep breaths. In, out, in, out. After her heartbeat had slowed she stood up shakily taking in her surroundings. It was a small alleyway, with a few red garbage bins along the side of the brick wall. Morgan let her fingers trace the edge of the rough bricks, looking up to the sky which was now slightly more cloudy than before. 

Morgan quickly diverted her attention from the sky back to the alleyway, taking careful steps along the wall. No one. Where had the Doctor gone? Morgan stopped suddenly then, trying to breathe as quietly as possible. There was a car coming in the distance, a siren coming from her right. And there was slight arrhythmic breathing, slightly off from her own. Morgan swung her hand in the direction it seemed to be coming from behind her, hitting an arm. 

“Ow!” The Doctor yelled as he quickly undid the watch and reappeared back into view. Morgan gave him a satisfied humph. And turned to walk along the alleyway. 

“That’s what you get for sneaking up on me and staying invisible!” Morgan said as the Doctor continued to rub his arm. Morgan stopped her walking as the Doctor lagged behind. She hadn’t hit that hard, it hadn’t even made that big of a noise, if any noise at all! Besides, he deserved it. “C'mon, it didn’t hurt that much,” Morgan tried again. He was just being overdramatic as always, that’s what this was. Morgan nodded to herself and then started walking at a normal pace again once the Doctor had caught up. 

“What is it with everyone and slapping me!” the Doctor complained as Morgan rolled her eyes and continued towards the normal sidewalk. 

“Maybe it’s because you are annoying sometimes,” Morgan offered and the Doctor shot her a glare. Morgan decided to give him a smirk in return. He couldn’t deny it. It was pure, objective, truth. 

“Ha, ha, ha, very funny,” the Doctor said, in a way that Morgan was now going to nickname ‘sarcasm but it’s Scottish’ ™. And yes, Morgan did just trademark that in her mind. 

It was a few more minutes before they reached the sidewalk. They walked relatively silently, just comfortable knowing the other was there. Well, probably. Although after the Clara scare had worn off, Morgan’s mind had gone back into panic mode. _ALERT ALERT. THE DOCTOR, I REPEAT, THE DOCTOR IS STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO YOU!_ The real Doctor and not just Peter Capaldi or anything. Real alien Doctor. Wow. What had her life come to where she could say ‘just Peter Capaldi’. Honestly though, what had her life come to?

“So, uh, I should probably be heading back now,” Morgan said, rubbing the back of her neck and gesturing to where Clara and Danny were in the distance. “Danny’s probably worried out of his mind and Clara’s probably expecting me to have been abducted by aliens at this point…” Morgan finished, trailing off. The Doctor started nodding in reply.

“Yes, yes, go home now and finish your homework or something,” He paused for a minute as if he was figuring out whether he should say what he was going to say next. “And don't’ go wandering off getting abducted, at least not before you properly meet me yet.” the Doctor continued, “So uh, bye,” he finished albeit a bit awkwardly, patting Morgan’s head yet again as if to emphasize how much taller he was. Morgan fought the urge to huff and swatted his hand away from her hand, giving him a pointed glare. Somehow that only succeeded in making him grin smugly at her. 

“Well then, Goodbye Doctor,” Morgan gave him a small wave as she went off in the direction that Danny and Clara had gone off in. She turned one last time only to see a faint blue box disappear in the distance. The faint ringing hung in her head as the final remnants of the TARDIS faded away. 

* * *

She was in the kitchen again. Sitting on a chair, Danny in the corner, waiting for her father to arrive home. Morgan let out a sigh trying to give Danny a glare or something. Danny mostly just had his eyes glued to the entrance, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. Ok so, maybe she should have brought a watch with her. Or like, checked her phone or something. Morgan collapsed forward into her arms at that moment, resting her face in her hands and massaging her temples. Ok but like Morgan hadn’t been out for that long! Besides, didn’t Danny say that she could go anywhere she wanted close to the school? _Anywhere she wanted close by,_ _ **during the meeting**. _Morgan elected to ignore that last fact. 

“Hey, Danny, I’m sorry I went and wandered off. I lost track of time…” Morgan trailed off trying to lessen the blow for when her father finally came back home. Danny sighed loudly and gave her an exasperated look. Morgan shrunk back a little at that, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear out of nervous habit. 

“I know Morgan, but you need to listen more and follow instructions a little-” Danny was cut off suddenly by her father opening the door. He stumbled in, looking as if he was about to pass out, a bunch of work papers and stuff on hand. Ok, she had approximately 5 minutes before her father found out and got angry and grounded her. If she could get Danny to not tell him- Morgan quickly spun around in her chair, widening her eyes trying to mimic Clara. She kept the pleading look for a few minutes before her dad could turn around and see. Danny sighed, shaking his head. Her silent plea had been heard. 

“Hi Morgan, dinner’s in the fridge I got it ready last night, all you got to do is heat it up in the microwave.” her father started breathing heavily as if he had just run a marathon. To be fair, he probably just had, she knew the people at his work tended to like to make him run errands a lot because he was new. Morgan let out a sigh at that thought as her father continued. “Sorry I won’t be able to eat with you today Morgan, we have an event for work today, I’m going to go take a shower and then I’ll be off again,” he continued, his tone tired and defeated. Morgan gave him a small frown and shook her head a little at that. He deserved so much better. This job may pay well but it wasn’t healthy for him or his mental health. _And she also missed him…._ Morgan shoved that last thought to the side and forced her face into a smile. Her father then started speeding up the stairs, just stopping to give an acknowledging wave to Danny before he regained his pace and went to take a shower. It was a few more minutes of silence before either Morgan Danny said anything else. 

“Thank you-” 

“I should go now-” Morgan and Danny both said at the same time. Morgan paused, then spoke up again first. 

“Thank you, for not telling him, it really means a lot to me, I owe you” Danny nodded along as Morgan spoke. Morgan bit her lip trying to gouge his reaction by analyzing his face. He gave her a small smile. Smile, that could either mean-

“You're welcome Morgan, but next time, maybe stay a bit closer to the school? You could've gotten seriously hurt! Also don’t forget you need to finish your reading questions for English, Clara told me to remind you about that,” he said, smirking a little and laughing. English questions? Wait! They need to answer the ‘what you think before you read’ (or something like that) questions before they started reading their new book, didn’t they! Morgan’s eyes widened and she began to sprint up the stairs before she came to an abrupt halt. Wait, she needed to say goodbye to Danny first. 

“Bye Danny!” Morgan called down the stairs as he was closing the front door. Danny looked up at her and rolled his eyes.

“Bye Morgan! And That’s Mr. Pink to you!” he called from below and Morgan rolled her own eyes at that. She still referred to him as Danny Pink in her head from the show. It seemed that old habits did indeed die hard. Morgan turned and headed to her room, bouncing on the balls of her feet to give herself extra momentum. She slid into her room with practiced precision, slipping into her desk chair. Morgan fell back and spun once around as her computer turned on. 

The light from outside was getting progressively dimmer and more orange. It would be dark soon. Morgan should probably get her questions finished before it got too dark. There, she had a goal now all she needed to do what get set to work. Leaning over her computer screen Morgan made a document for her assignment, she copied down all of the questions. And just as she was about to get to work, just when her day was starting to get some semblance of normality. Well of course, right then, a spark of light lit up her room, accompanied by a loud noise. Morgan jumped furling around and grabbed the nearest hard thing near her. Somehow this ended up being a textbook. Heavy and hard, if she swung hard enough she would hopefully be able to knock someone out. 

Poised and about to swing, Morgan finally took in what was behind her. She froze, her heartbeat ricocheting and her breathing becoming laboured. She had to fight to keep her vision focused and not sprint out of that room right at that moment as her brain was screaming at her to do. A victorian purple dress complete with some strange updo and a vortex manipulator. 100% timelord. And 100% the timelord she was least expecting to see today. And the timelord she was probably was fine with never seeing her life. Too late. 

Wait, she needed to think now and she needed to think fast. She could very well get killed quite easily in the next few minutes if she didn’t play her cards right. She couldn’t show that she was scared, no that would not help her situation much. If she acted confident, then it had a tiny chance of actually making her less terrified. And maybe, might discourage Missy from immediately pulverizing her. Or whatever other methods of murder she chose to use.

“Out,” Morgan decided on. Short and to the point. Morgan had homework to do she didn’t have time for this. Although the fangirl inside of her was positively squealing with glee, every other part of her was decidedly not. Dangerous and ruining her schedule, those two things were just not allowed. 

“Oh don’t be like that,” Missy started, taking a few steps dangerously close to Morgan. Morgan froze, her hair standing on end. Although Morgan stood her ground, she did lean a bit back. For safety reasons. Missy paused then, noticing Morgan’s science textbook still poised to hit in her hand and gave it a puzzled look. 

“Oh is that seriously what you pets are learning right now? Oh isn’t that disappointing.” Missy drawled, sighing dramatically as she continued to saunter forward. Morgan crossed her arms and shot Missy a glare. She didn’t have time for this. 

“No one asked for your opinion. I’m busy, either stay quiet and don’t move, or get out.” Morgan reiterated. There, this time Morgan gave her two options, she didn’t have to leave but Morgan could still get her work done. Win-Win. 

“But I’m bored,” Missy said again, dragging out the bored. She was now only around half a meter away but Morgan continued glaring. Maybe if she glared hard enough it would make Missy go away. What she would give to have proper attack eyebrows at that moment! “How about instead, I give you two more options, Option 1, I kill you then you never have to do homework again!” Missy exclaimed with glee, gesturing as if this was some exciting development. Which it was not. Morgan fought the urge to shrink back and instead rolled her eyes. If she was going to die, she was going to die. There was no use being all scared about it, it wasn't as if that would save her or anything. 

“Option 2,” Missy continued and Morgan almost jumped when she realized that Missy now had her arm wrapped around Morgan’s shoulder. Morgan tried to shrug it off but Missy instead increased her grip. “Option 2, is we go take this handy vortex manipulator and go take over some random planet. Very fun plan and in that plan you also don't have to do homework!” Missy finished. Morgan sighed and gave Missy a pointed look. 

“Take over a planet?” Morgan echoed but said it in a more deadpan manner. No Morgan did not want to take over a planet, and Missy probably shouldn’t take over one either.

“Oh right sorry that’s not ‘good’ is it,” Missy rolled her eyes, pronouncing the good more like ‘gud’. Morgan raised an eyebrow indicating that yeah, not exactly ‘good’. Morgan sighed again and decided to steer the conversation away from world domination plans. 

“Where’d you even get that vortex manipulator?” Morgan asked and Missy paused, her grip loosening momentarily. Almost enough for Morgan to wiggle free for a moment bit then Missy tightened it yet again. 

“Well, I borrowed it, although I should probably get back soon before Eyebrows gets too angry,” Missy continued. Ok, hmm judging by what Missy said she was probably in the vault. Or well, she was currently supposed to be in the vault. How on earth she actually got a vortex manipulator, well that was another thing entirely.

“Vault?” Morgan asked instead, crossing her arms and finally getting a comfortable distance away from Missy. 

“Awfully boring in there, although there is a piano…” Missy trailed off. Definitely series 10. And Missy was supposed to be in the vault right now. While Morgan was supposed to be doing homework. It seemed they both weren’t doing the things they were supposed to be doing at that moment. 

“Well, it seems you should be going now, and I’ve got work to do,” Morgan decided, trying not to leave any room up for discussion. 

“Fine, be boring then, but don’t blame me is any humans go missing or anythin-” Morgan cut Missy off

“Missy, no get back to the vault now.” Morgan crossed her arms and started tapping her foot impatiently. 

“Fine, be boring like y- like eyebrows” Missy rolled her eyes and gave an overdramatic puff. And then right before Missy left, she winked and the flash of light was the last indicator that Missy ad ever been there. Morgan blinked wait a- Her textbook. Her textbook was gone. Morgan massaged her temples and fell back into her chair as she began on her work. She let out a long sigh. It seemed she would have to somehow figure out how to explain to her science teacher that she had lost her textbook tomorrow. Well, if she had the time. But there was no reason that she wouldn’t. She would finish her English homework and have a good, more or less normal day at school tomorrow! Unfortunately, that statement couldn’t have been any further from the truth. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed that! And don't worry, we will be properly meeting you know who very, very soon... (and no, I do not mean Voldemort) Next chapter will hopefully be out tomorrow! Stay tuned and feel free to comment down below!


	6. Update

**Chapter 6 is taking longer than expected to write so it, unfortunately, won’t be coming out today. However, stay tuned because tomorrow it will finally be out! I’m really sorry about the delay but hopefully, you won’t have to wait too long for it!**


	7. Human are not Otters!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHH. I'm so sorry to everyone for the late update! It ended up taking so much longer than anticipated! But here it is finally, and hopefully, the length will make up for the wait! Next chapter, as per usual, will be out on Sunday! Feel free to comment any suggestions or anything really in the comments below!

It was a nice day on Wednesday the next day. The sky wasn’t as blue as Morgan maybe wished it to be but it wasn’t raining either so that was a plus. Morgan was leaning against the brick wall of the school, phone in hand. Morgan clicked on something in her game then let out a frustrated sigh letting her head fall back to rest against the wall. Honestly why was terraforming Mars in a game so hard! _Probably because she kept forgetting to play the game on some days and accidentally added way too much oxygen._ No, bad brain, stop being logical! Oh well, she could fix it tomorrow. Morgan decided instead to scroll through Instagram, somehow finding herself searching for the Official Doctor Who account even though it obviously didn’t exist anymore. 

Morgan sighed and closed her phone, shoving it in the front pocket of her bag. Courtney slipped in beside her, leaning against the wall beside the front doors. She poked Morgan in the side when Morgan didn’t say anything to her, gesturing to Clara and Danny's approaching figures. Didn’t she get the memo already? Morgan hadn’t been talking to her because she didn’t have the energy to think about the stupid ship today! 

“Hello Courtney,” Morgan said. Hopefully, she would get the telepathic hint and leave Morgan alone. Alas, she did not. 

“Ozzie loves the squaddie…” Courtney leaned in and whispered into Morgan’s ear. Morgan swatted her away and gave her a glare. 

“Courtney shut up, I’m busy!” Morgan hissed, gluing her eyes to Clara and Danny as they neared the school. Today was Wednesday. And this was the last Wednesday that Morgan was going to spend hiding and moping and following Clara around. This was the day that Morgan would meet the Doctor. For real this time. 

“How're you busy? What are you doing, staring into space?” Courtney asked skeptically, rolling her eyes as she said space. Morgan gave her a huff, deciding to humour her. Fine, if Courtney was going to continue talking to her, then she asked for it. 

“It’s actually really time-consuming staring into space y’know, you should try it sometime.”Morgan said, “Better than randomly shipping teachers…” Morgan added at the end. Courtney shoved her at that last comment but then immediately righted herself as Danny and Clara came into view. She plastered on a fake smile and directed it at the teachers.

“Morning, Mister Pink!” Courtney called over to Danny. Danny turned from where he was walking to give Courtney a polite acknowledging nod. There Courtney went again, Morgan rolled her eyes. If she wanted to properly ship them she needed to do it the right way. Like, for one, actually tell them that ‘Ozzie’ was short for Oswald and ‘squaddie’ was Danny. To be fair though, it was really obvious. It was a wonder Danny and Clara hadn’t figured it out already themselves. 

“Mornin’, Courtney,” Danny started, his voice turning almost sour. “Morgan,” Morgan gave him an acknowledging nod and wave as he continued, “Your dad drive you to school today?” Danny asked. Morgan nodded. 

“Yeah, but he won’t be able to pick me up so…” Morgan trailed off as she didn’t really need to explain much further. Danny nodded then turned to face where Clara was coming up as well. 

“Good Morning Miss Oswald!” Danny waved to Clara giving her a small smile. Clara beamed back at him, returning the wave as she walked up to the door. 

“Morning, Mister Pink!” Clara said and they both disappeared through the doors to the entrance. Wait, she needed to ask Clara to clarify something about one of the questions last night didn’t she! Morgan jumped up to go inside, speeding to the door as Courtney and a bunch of other girls started giggling, probably at Danny and Clara or something. Morgan peeked her head through the door, scanning the hallways until she’d spotted where Danny and Clara had gone down the hallway to her left. Morgan made a beeline towards their retreating figures, panting as she ran. When she’d finally caught up, Morgan tapped Clara a little on her shoulder as a warning that she was about to speak. 

“Excuse me, Miss Oswald?” Morgan asked, standing on her tiptoes to try to get a little higher. Clara turned around suddenly at the sound of Morgan’s voice, startled for a second before quickly changing her expression to a smile. 

“Morgan! What did you want to ask?” Clara asked slowing down a bit so they could talk properly. 

“Just wanted to clarify that question 4 was a typo and-” Morgan started as Clara interrupted.

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry Morgan, we’ll get it all sorted out later,” Clara smiled, and a wave of relief washed over Morgan. Ok good, so she no longer had that question to worry about. One thing less on her ‘to worry about’ list. 

“Wait Morgan,” Danny called as Morgan was about to go to her locker,” Morgan turned around to face him.

“Yeah?”

“The other girls do you know if they know about you know…” Danny trailed off making a few weird gestures. Morgan raised an eyebrow at that. Did he mean his and Clara’s relationship? Oh, well she wasn’t 100% sure but pretty darn sure that they knew that Danny and Clara were dating. They weren’t exactly good at hiding it. Well, at least not from perceptive people. 

“I don’t know… I’ll have to check in with- yes Mr. Pink, they know! It’s pretty obvious, you both need to get better at hiding things,” Morgan added the last thing offhandedly at the end and Clara froze. Clara was definitely thinking about something completely different at that statement. Something old. Something new. Something Borrowed. Something Blue. Maybe Morgan could use this to her advantage if-

“What do you mean?” Clara asked quickly, a hint of panic slipping into her tone. Morgan just shook her head and smiled. “Morgan what do you mean!” Morgan simply smirked at that just ignoring Clara’s questions. 

“See you in class Miss. Oswald!” Morgan called to Clara behind her as she continued down the hallway. Completely avoiding the question. Was she being too mean? Nah, Clara would probably forget about it later in the day anyway. 

“Morgan!” Clara called one last time but Morgan was already too far away. Besides, she was already at her locker. If Clara was really that insistent to talk, she could talk to Morgan when Morgan had her English class. Morgan shoved her bag into her locker and got out her stuff for English and science, pausing to check her phone for any messages from her dad as she locked it again. Once the lock clicked into place, Morgan opened her game and played it for a few more minutes before she gave up again. She should probably be heading to class anyway. There, now she could start heading to class. Because that was what Morgan was doing, heading to class. 

Ok, maybe that had been a lie. But she’d get to class eventually. Besides, it would be weird to arrive at class too early. Morgan sighed and started off in a random direction, weaving her way around the crowd. After wondering for at least 10 minutes Morgan turned a corner into another hallway. She should probably be getting to class eventually. Clara probably wouldn’t appreciate it if Morgan were to be late-

Morgan yelped, having almost run into someone but stopped herself at the last second. Her heart pounded in her ears for a minute as she wobbled. Morgan stumbled, almost falling into them but they grabbed her by the shoulders and she finally gained her balance again. Morgan let out a sigh of relief. Ok, she should definitely be getting back to class before she zoned out so much that she accidentally ran into a wall. Oh, wait… The poor person in front of her! She needed to apologize!

“Oh, I’m so sorry for walking into you! I was just walking but I’m not sure if y mind was on earth or something I don't know I really should have been paying more- attention….” Morgan trailed off, finally meeting the gaze of the person that she had walked into. Her mouth froze mid-sentence and she sputtered a bit, apparently having lost her ability to form words.

“It’s ok, I’m the new caretaker, it’s my duty to take care! Making sure random students don’t walk into walls is part of the job description!” the Doctor grinned, then added offhandedly, “Well, it is now apparently.” the Doctor trailed off flicking some speck of dust off of his brown ‘disguise’ coat. Morgan swallowed and stood straighter, finally regaining the ability to speak. Morgan cleared her throat before she began her reply. 

“My name’s Morgan,” Morgan shot her hand out and blurted before she could second guess herself. There. This was her chance. This was actually happening. This wasn’t some sort of dream or hallucination- Morgan paused her train of thought as the Doctor seemed to start measuring something, putting his hand to the top of her head and...

“I thought that other teacher… Clara was short but you beat even her. Has this school developed some sort of fault or something-” The Doctor started but Morgan cut him off. Why did he always have to go on about her height? She wasn’t that short! And neither was Clara! The Doctor just happened to be really tall and everyone else just looked short in comparison. Well, at least that's what she told herself- No annoying part of the brain you were not given permission to speak! 

“It’s to be more steady, the shorter you are, the lower your center of gravity.” That seemed like logical reasoning right. Yes, it was, Morgan nodded at that. And it was the perfect diversion to get around the topic. And avoid it. “Now, anyway, I’ve got to get to class Mr. Caretaker, have a nice day,” Morgan waved at the doctor as she left and he turned to go back to whatever work he had to do. Have a nice day. Really Morgan? 

It was a few more minutes later when the Doctor had finally disappeared completely from Morgan’s view. Morgan was now visibly shaking and no matter how much she tried to stop it she couldn’t. Taking deep breaths in and out Morgan made her way slowly towards her English classroom. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Morgan tried to ground herself by grasping the wall with her clammy fingers stumbling towards her class. She was fine. Everything was fine. She didn’t have time for this. She needed to get her stupid act together and get to English class. And then, there she would figure out what to do next.

* * *

The sky was getting slightly cloudier. But the clouds were hanging over the sky in that way they did where they made you think it was going to rain, but really it wasn’t. So it probably wasn’t going to rain. Morgan traced the edge of the tree’s branches with her finger through, the background noise of the class reading Pride and Prejudice fading t the back of her mind Morgan probably should have been paying attention but it was a little hard when she couldn’t really concentrate on anything. How on earth was she supposed to pay attention in English class when the reminder that she may very well soon see the Doctor again kept her thoughts racing?

He was the Doctor! With the TARDIS! All of time and space that could all be at her disposal. Her English class, in comparison, seemed so… insignificant. One class on some small planet in the whole wide universe. The consequences of missing, what? One English class? That compared to travelling in all of space and time! It was immeasurable, the pros outweighed the cons so much that the cons were no longer even visible! The cons had left earth altogether and had been smushed and pushed into another universe! And this was definitely not just Morgan’s excuse to not pay attention in English class. Morgan usually enjoyed English class, a lot actually! But then her mind would wander. Imagine her, meeting some famous scientist in the past. Like Einstein! Or Marie Curie! 

Morgan probably would’ve continued being zoned out for the whole class were it not for Clara marching towards Morgan’s spot. Morgan sat up straight and smiled at Clara, making sure to make eye contact. Clara gave a small smile back before immediately returning to a scowl. 

“You all right, Miss Oswald?” Random classmate whom Morgan had forgotten the name of number 1 asked. Clara gave him her practiced and painfully forced smile as she gave her reply. 

“Yes, Kelvin, I’m fine. You carry on.” Clara lied. Morgan almost snorted at that ‘I’m fine’. Yeah, and Morgan was the Queen of England. _Kelvin._ Oh yes, that was his name, wasn't it? Morgan stored that information for later. Kelvin… Wasn’t that a unit of measurement? Like 0 Kelvin was absolute 0 or something. And -273.15 degrees Celcius was the equivalent? And yes Morgan had memorized that. Morgan had a lot of free time to learn random useless facts. 

Kelvin then continued his reading of Pride and Prejudice as Clara got closer to where Morgan was seated, right up until she was standing a mere half-metre away. Clara climbed onto a chair and Morgan watched carefully as the conversation played out. 

“Can I help you, Mister Smith?” Clara asked. Although it was worded much more as a rhetorical question. _Wrong._

“Wrong!” the Doctor declared, not giving any further information. Ah yes, there the Doctor went again with his helpful commentary and unwarranted remarks. _Hmmm, doesn’t that sound familiar? Isn’t there a certain girl that does just tha-_

“I’m sorry?” Clara said, the rage boiling up just beneath the surface. And though she said ‘I’m sorry’ the way she said it was much more like ‘Excuse me?’.

“On the board. Wrong. Wrong!” the Doctor said again. Morgan rolled her eyes at that. Did it really matter when exactly it was? This was an English class, not history! What were they going to do next, argue the exact minute of publishing?

“Oh, no, no, no, no. You don’t do this. You are the caretaker, this is not what you do.” Clara was almost fuming now and her expression was screaming ‘get out now before I murder you’. Morgan couldn't exactly blame her. 

“Just taking care.” the Doctor smiled as if this somehow excused everything. 

“Not your area!” Clara bit back. Morgan sighed and face-palmed as they continued. This may have been a funny scene on the show (that Morgan had admittedly rewatched on way too many of those best of Doctor Who videos), but in real life, it was just frustrating. 

“Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in 1796.” the Doctor said. Oh yeah, and it was soooo important exactly when it was written for their understanding of the English class!

“This is Mister Smith, the temporary caretaker, and he's a bit confused,” Clara said. Wasn’t that the understatement of the century. Clara’s eyes though, said that this was the Doctor’s cue to make an exit. The Doctor, however, did not take the hint

“Not in 1797, because she didn't have the time. She was so busy doing all-” the Doctor was abruptly cut off as Clara started her rant. 

“Oh, What? I suppose she was your bezzie mate, was she? And you went on holidays together and then you got kidnapped by Boggons from space and then you all formed a band and met Buddy Holly.” Clara finished her rant, now completely fuming and Morgan almost burst out laughing. Except that she held herself back at the last second, and ended up with some strange choked giggles instead. 

“No, I read the book. There's a bio at the back.” the Doctor continued, his face growing smugger by the second. Ok, that was enough, Morgan had had enough. The student sin Clara’s class already gave her enough of a hard time, she didn’t need the Doctor humiliating her as well. 

“Excuse me, Miss Oswald?” Morgan asked. Although it wasn’t really meant as a question. Morgan was going to speak no matter what. 

“Yes, Morgan?” Clara turned her exasperated expression to Morgan. 

“I just wanted to say that since this is English class, a one year difference wouldn’t really make much of a difference to our understanding of the book,” Morgan turned her gaze to the Doctor, signalling that the next part of her statement was for him, “Therefore rendering your argument obsolete,” Morgan concluded. There, see? End of discussion. There was a beat of silence in the room as Clara grew her own smug expression and the Doctor looked positively completely offended at that. Well, that’s what he got for making fun of her height earlier. Then the class burst out into a fit of giggles and Clara finally convinced the Doctor to let it go. 

The bell then decided to ring at that moment, and a collective wave of relief rippled through the classroom. Clara hopped down from the chair and hurried to the exit of the class. Morgan started packing up as the Kelvin guy decided to ask for homework or something. Ok, that was annoying. Why was he asking for homework? No, you do not ask for homework! You get the teacher distracted and hope that they forget what the word ‘homework’ even means! That was the correct way to go about it!

Ok so now, Morgan needed to somehow find a way to get to the courtyard before science class. Easy right? Maybe. Yes? No? Danny, he was going to be there right? She needed to invent a reason to have to talk to him… What would that be… Math homework! Yes! She would have to ask him some random math homework question! Uh…. What was a generally hard concept to understand… Hmmm, Exponential equations! That was hardish, right? Yes, that's what she would ask, perfect idea! 10 out of 10. Ok, maybe not completely solid, but at least it would give her a reasonable enough excuse to talk to him!

Morgan sped to the exit of the class and started weaving through the crowded hallway. She ducked under some arms and squeezed around and was getting closer to the door. There was a slight breeze coming from the opened doors leading out into the school courtyard. Or the playground. Or whatever it was, the grassy area where the Doctor and Clara would be. And Danny. There, that’s what Morgan was naming it now. New name, no arguing with Morgan.

Morgan hugged herself tighter as another burst of wind came through the open doors shuffling over to the courtyard. Once she was finally outside, Morgan increased her pace into more of a run. Well, half run. Somewhere between speed-walk and run. Morgan made her way hurriedly to where the Doctor and Danny were sitting by the box of open wires. It probably had a name, Morgan was too lazy to think of a name for it at that moment. Besides, she had more important things to deal with at that moment. 

Morgan took in a deep breath and put on a smile as she approached the Doctor and Danny. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Clara watering some plants trying to get closer to hear the conversation. Morgan probably shouldn’t judge Clara at that. Morgan was basically doing the exact same thing at that moment. Minus the watering can. 

“I'm sure I won't need you, Sergeant. Fully qualified.” The Doctor said condescendingly. And then proceeded to randomly stab his non-sonic screwdriver into the wires causing sparks to fly. Everyone, including Morgan, flinched. “You best get back to your PE class.” the Doctor said again and Morgan gave a huff of annoyance. Ok, this was where she would intervene. Enough was enough, the Doctor may not like soldiers but he could at least be less annoying about it. 

“Maths class” Morgan called, correcting the Doctor from where she now stood beside Danny. The Doctor paused, eyeing her warily for a moment before starting again. 

“What, in emergencies?” the Doctor asked, saying it as if that was the only possible explanation. 

“No. I'm a maths teacher,” Danny said as if maybe the Doctor had misheard. He hadn’t misheard, he was just being a jerk about it. 

“Yeah, he's a maths teacher” the other teacher with the bow-tie repeated. Something broke off in the distance. Morgan winced as the Bowtie teacher hurried off in the direction of the sound. She turned her attention back to the Doctor and Danny’s conversation as they began to speak again. 

“How does that work? What if the kids have questions?” the Doctor asked again. Then they asked the stupid questions! It wasn’t that hard to understand!

“Speaking of questions!” Morgan interrupted, raising her voice so the two couldn’t interrupt her. “I was wondering if you could help me with some exponential equations later, Mister Pink,” Morgan asked, putting on her small sweet confused student smile. 

“Yeah, no problem Morgan!” Danny said, he turned to face the Doctor again, “See, I answer them. I'm a maths teacher.” Yes, maths teacher. Now the Doctor better drop this unless he wanted Morgan to slap him or go insane. Or both. Or murder him or something. Or throttle him. Or throw a chai-

“But he said you were a soldier.” the Doctor said, gesturing to where the bowtie teacher had disappeared off to. Morgan facepalmed, hard, not even bothering to hold it back. God, she could just strangle the idiot right then and there! What was so hard to understand!

“Yeah, and now he’s a maths teacher! Oh my god! It’s almost as if people can change their jobs! What a revolutionary concept!” Morgan cried, the sarcasm dripping from her words. Danny winced a little at Morgan’s loud tone and the Doctor just stared at her with his eyebrows furrowed. If she continued like this, the Doctor would probably hate her soon. Oh well, it wasn’t as if Morgan was going to take that into consideration, now was she? She may have not cared much for Danny in the show, but he was her dad’s friend and by extension, her friend. And anyone who insulted Morgan's friend had a death wish. Well, at least, that’s how Morgan saw it. 

“But what about all the PE?” the Doctor asked again as if he could just not wrap his mind around the concept. 

“I don't teach PE. I'm not a PE teacher.” Danny tried again as if his words would actually get through the Doctor’s thick skull. They wouldn’t. In one stupid ear and out the other. 

“Sorry, that seems very unlikely.” the Doctor said again and by that point, Morgan was fuming. Honestly, the idio- Morgan took a deep breath in to at least be somewhat composed. 

“Unlikely, maybe, but unlikely isn’t impossible.” Morgan spat, marching closer to the Doctor. “If it's too difficult for you to understand, you could try-'' Danny cut Morgan off and Morgan swung her glare over to him. Danny shrunk back a tiny bit before regaining his own composure. 

“Morgan…” Danny warned. Oh well. Warnings were only suggestions anyway. 

“Er, excuse me. Mister Pink,” Clara piped up from behind Morgan. “I think class 9M4 are waiting.” Clara continued in, biting her lip a little. Morgan deflated a bit. Ok, maybe Morgan was being a bit unreasonably angry, but still. _And she’d probably also just ruined any and all chances she had of ever travelling with the Doctor._

“Yes, you better run along, Sergeant. That ball isn't going to kick itself, is it?” the Doctor continued in his pointless annoying… Ok, Morgan took that back. Definitely still angry. 

“Well at least Mister Pink isn’t an idiotic moro-” Morgan paused as Clara gave her her teacher glare. Oops, ok maybe Morgan had gone a little far. 

“Morgan, aren’t you supposed to be getting to science class?” Claar asked, giving Morgan her ‘get your butt over to science class look’. Morgan raised her chin. Ok, fine she would go to science class, but not before getting the last word in. 

“But Miss Oswald, how could I go to science class if I used to be in English class! It doesn't make sense!” Morgan mocked, her voice raised in a terrible imitation of the Doctor’s Scottish accent. The Doctor sent her a death glare at that moment, looking as if he were about to throttle her. The oncoming storm was lurking around the corner and Morgan flinched a little, leaning back involuntarily. 

“Morgan..” Clara warned in a low voice, gritting her teeth. Morgan sighed and tried to give Clara an apologetic look but Clara just glared back at her. Ok great, now everyone was angry at Morgan. But it had been worth it at least if only to defend Danny. And maybe she had just ruined her chances of travelling in all of space and time. Her gut clenched at the thought but Morgan pushed it away. No, because friends were more important than missing an opportunity. And people couldn’t just go around insulting them, not even the Doctor. Especially not the Doctor.

* * *

Ok, so maybe arguing for that long hadn’t been Morgan’s brightest idea. Well, anyone with half a brain could have told her that. So, arriving slightly late to science class with no textbook, let's just say the teacher wasn’t exactly... pleased. Thankfully though, Morgan only got let off with a warning. And well, she had to go get a new textbook from the storeroom. And just as she had started walking out of the classroom to the storeroom, the teacher popped their head out of the classroom again.

“Morgan!” Morgan spun around to face her teacher and nodded for them to continue.

“Courtney made a mess again,” what? How? It had been what? 5 minutes. Morgan let out an exasperated sigh, “And well she’ll be coming with you to get some towels from the storeroom!” Morgan’s eyes widened as the pieces finally clicked together. Courtney, storeroom, towels. Her favourite scene of all time. Ok, that was an over-exaggeration, the ‘I am an idiot’ scene surpassed this one. But it was definitely one of her favourites. Oh god. And the Doctor would be there too. And Morgan somehow had to fix the complete mess she had made earlier. 

Morgan fidgeted with the collar of her shirt for a good while as they got nearer and nearer. Ok, she needed to be less abrasive, less argumentative and well, not call the Doctor an idiotic moron probably. Maybe just an idiot this time. Or strongly imply. Morgan furrowed her eyebrows as she continued this train of thought, glaring into space. Like staring into space, but angrier. Courtney gave her a confused stare at this but Morgan just brushed it off. She didn’t have time to deal with Courtney right now. 

Finally, they had reached the room and Morgan just couldn’t help the wide smile that graced her face. This was it. The real go away humans sign. Not a show, not some pixels on a tv. Morgan almost reached out to touch it before she was immediately interrupted by Courtney shaving her way past her. Morgan stumbled and shot Courtney a glare. Courtney just rolled her eyes and continued past the door. Morgan froze and squinted at the green light emanating from the TARDIS.

“Hello? Oi. What are you doing? Are you in there?”Courtney called from beside Morgan. Morgan sighed, gesturing to the green glow. 

“Obviously, what do you think, the box is glowing of its own accord?” Morgan deadpanned. Courtney shot her a glare at that

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the most dangerous of them all?” the Doctor said from inside the TARDIS. Morgan huffed peeking her own head past the door too. The green light went out suddenly. Almost time. 

“There's been a spillage in Science, I need some paper towels.” Courtney piped up. Morgan sighed, getting a bit frustrated with the Doctor’s slow timing.

“Today, preferably,” Morgan added, and Courtney elbowed Morgan at that, Morgan returning the gesture. The Doctor suddenly burst out of the TARDIS and started scowling. He marched up to where both girls were standing, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Can't you read?” The Doctor scowled. Yeah, of course, they could read, they just chose to ignore the sign. 

“Course I can read. Read what?” Courtney shot back and Morgan shrank back into the background. She couldn’t ruin this scene, it was just... Too perfect. Besides she was tired, it wouldn’t be too bad to waste some science class anyway, would it? 

“The door.” he clarified, “It says, Keep Out.” No, it didn't, but that was Courtney's line. 

“No, it says, Go Away Humans.” Courtney rebutted while Morgan mouthed the words along with her. Honestly, this was just pure gold. And it was real, not just a tv show. That was just so- The Doctor snatched the sign from the wall, turning it around so he could read it. 

“Oh, so it does. “ the Doctor deflated, his eyebrows getting slightly less angry, “Never lose your temper in the middle of a door sign.” Or alternatively when you’re meeting one of your biggest role models. And then somehow end up insulting them. Maybe this would go as it was supposed to and he wouldn’t notice her? Except that she did still need her science textbook… 

“What were you doing in there? What's that box?” That was the question, wasn’t it? Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. TARDIS for short.

“The caretaker's box. Every caretaker has their own box.” the Doctor tried. No, unfortunately, caretakers did not normally have TARDISes lying around their office. 

“It says Police.” Yes, it did, good job Courtney! 

“Exactly, there's a policeman in there, in case of emergencies and children.” The Doctor said. Morgan snorted at that. It was just kind of funny that emergencies and children were grouped together in the same category. The Doctor’s gaze flitted to her for a moment and Morgan froze as they made eye contact again. A wave of recognition passed over him and he scowled. Great, the Doctor hated her. Wasn’t that just wonderful? “Towels, there, g-g-go.” the Doctor shoved some towels into Courtney’s hands. 

“What was that green glow? There was a green glow coming from in there. What was it?” Courtney tried again. All valid questions, none of them going to be answered by the Doctor. 

“Of course there was.” The Doctor cried, oh yes, of course, there was! “What's a policeman without a death ray?” Morgan couldn’t help but snorting again at that one but earned herself a glare from the Doctor. Morgan just glared back but flinched as the school bell rang loudly. God, why did they have to make it so sudden? Why wasn’t there like a soft transition or something? 

“Oh, listen, there's the bell.” the Doctor remarked, “Off you go. Haven't you got shoplifting to go to?” Morgan raised an eyebrow at that. Really, shoplifting? What was it with the Doctor and stereotyping today? Morgan sighed, zoning out for a few minutes as the Doctor and Courtney continued to argue only to come back to earth for the iconic part. 

“Everything. Human beings have incredibly short life spans. Frankly, you should all be in a permanent state of panic. Tick tock, tick tock.” the Doctor said. Morgan snorted again. Really Doctor?

“Aren’t you cheery…” Morgan muttered under her breath. The Doctor ignored this remark, instead deciding to return his attention to Courtney. 

“You're weird.” Courtney sneered at the Doctor. Stating the obvious much? Also, there wasn’t anything wrong with being weird! Weird was good! Morgan was definitely not biased in that opinion. 

“Yes, I am. What about you?” the Doctor admitted. Was that self-awareness Morgan just heard? Were her ears deceiving her? Wow, who would’ve thought? 

“I'm a disruptive influence,” Courtney smirked proudly. Wasn’t that the understatement of the century? 

“Good to meet you.”

“And you.” Courtney returned, shaking the Doctor’s hand. He smiled smugly as he gave his next statement.

“Now get lost.” the Doctor said and Morgan smiled a bit at that. She couldn’t help it, it was kind of hilarious. Courtney shot her another glare at that as she sauntered off. Morgan sighed gesturing with her chin for Courtney to go off without her. She turned to face the Doctor, arms crossed. 

“I need a grade 10 science textbook,” Morgan said. The Doctor just stared at her blankly for a while as the gears in his brain started turning before speaking.

“Why don’t you get it yourself? I thought I was too much of an ‘idiotic moron’-” the Doctor started but Morgan cut him off.

“Look, I’m sorry about what I said earlier, I didn’t mean it... Well, not really.” Morgan paused for a second before continuing, “Now that my head is clear, you don’t seem to be that much of an idiot,” Morgan said, trying to lighten the mood a bit with a joke. 

“So you wanted a textbook?” the Doctor asked and Morgan paused momentarily. Uh, oh yeah, that's what she had been here for wasn’t it? Morgan nodded to the Doctor and he fumbled around for a key. It was a few more minutes of him fumbling around the closet searching for the right textbook. Morgan stood there awkwardly, practicing her smile and making some weird expressions in between. 

“So uh, why exactly is there a Police Box in here? Like, the actual reason.” Morgan asked. Ok, maybe that was a little too direct but, as the Doctor said, it might work one day! The Doctor paused and turned his gaze back to her, as he placed the textbook in her hands. Morgan took it and narrowed her eyes, hoping if she stared enough he would tell her why the box was there. Well, she did already know, but the Doctor didn’t know that. 

“So,” the Doctor said instead, catching Morgan a little off guard, “what’s your name again? I think you told me earlier, but I must have deleted it,” Ah, of course, he had. Typical Doctor. Morgan rolled her eyes and put out her hand for him to shake for a second time. 

“Morgan, Morgan Flores,” Morgan clarified just in case the Doctor somehow mixed her up with another Morgan. Not that he knew many Morgans. Did he?

“The Doctor,” the Doctor said shaking her hand. Morgan begrudgingly held in her involuntary Doctor Who. But then she decided against it turning around right as she was back at the door. 

“Doctor Who?” Morgan smirked and the Doctor grinned. One of the two things guaranteed to bring a smile to the Doctor’s face. ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘It’s bigger on the inside’. 

“That’s the question isn’t it?” _Indeed it was._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed that! Next chapter will be out on Sunday! Feel free to post any thoughts you have in the comments below!


	8. No the Doctor is not Clara's Space-Dad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. Realized I accidentally wrote over 10000 words for this chapter so I had to split it up into two parts in order to get it edited on time. The next part will come out tomorrow so that I have time to properly edit. And remember feel free to put any feedback or thoughts in the comments below!

So, this was definitely not one of Morgan's brighter ideas. It was dark, very dark, but since it was the city, somehow it wasn't dark enough for her to see the stars. Because of course, it wasn't. The cold crept in along Morgan's spine and she shivered. She forgot to bring a coat again, didn't she? Sighing, she sneaked closer to where Danny was also sneaking. Morgan crouched and watched as Danny stared confused at the weird gadgets the Doctor had put up everywhere.

She took a step closer into the school, creeping up slowly. Ok, so, this was where her little plan got dangerous. And deadly. Maybe Morgan really was in over her head. Would she really be able to deal with murderous alien robots? Morgan stumbled over something, having not been paying much attention. She swore under her breath as she righted herself. Danny was now alert and calling. Great, now she had to explain herself. She had prepared something for this, but she had really not wanted it to come to this.

"Someone there?" Danny called, his muscles tense as he searched his surroundings carefully. Morgan let out a sigh and revealed herself, waving awkwardly.

"Hi, Mister Pink'' Morgan tried, a forced smile on her face. She cringed a little as his eyes widened in surprise.

"Morgan! What the hell!" Danny almost shrieked, although he said it in a whispered tone. "What are you doing here?" Danny hissed again, pulling Morgan closer to him so that they could hide better.

"I'm out with friends!" Morgan explained, smirking a bit. Danny sighed.

"Which friends Morgan?" Danny asked and Morgan scowled. Really! Morgan had friends- how dare he insinuate- Calm. She needed to be calm. She couldn't have a repeat of what had happened earlier that day. Morgan winced a little at the thought.

"Well you of course," Morgan shot him a mischievous grin and he sighed, massaging his temples. 

"Really Morgan?" Danny said. Morgan scoffed in mock offence.

"Are you saying that we aren't friends!" Morgan gasped and Danny shot her an unamused look.

"How did you even find me?" Danny hissed again, lowering his voice as they crept further through the hallways.

"My alien telepathy powers of course," Morgan said offhandedly but then winced again. That hit a bit too close to home. A flood of images of her mom threatened to spill but Morgan stopped them just in time. She needed to focus. Danny shot her an unimpressed look. Danny paused as he noticed the blinking gadget and reached to touch it.

"Maybe you shouldn't touch that," Morgan cut in, reaching out to stop his hand. Danny waved it away and continued being an idiot. Honestly, when was touching something foreign ever a good idea?

"I know what I'm doing, Morgan," Danny told her condescendingly and Morgan bit her lip. No, actually he had no clue what he was dealing with, that much was obvious. Morgan on the other hand actually did know what was going on.

"No you don't, otherwise you wouldn't be sneaking here in the middle of the night because you thought the caretaker was suspicious." Morgan bit back and Danny jst glared at her. Morgan returned it right back.

"Morgan, you know it's at times like these that I would just wish that you would shut up," Danny said and Morgan scowled again at that, crossing her eyebrows. Really? So he was using that as an excuse not to listen to perfectly sound advice! Fine, if he wanted to do something stupid, that was on him. Nobody was going to get hurt in the end by this, so it probably didn't make much of a difference. That didn't mean it wasn't still annoying though. Biting back her response, Morgan sat in silence as he removed the device and it started blinking red.

It was another few hallways before they arrived at the storeroom again. Morgan stopped and Danny paused. He took a breath in before knocking on the door. Morgan held her breath, even though a little voice at the back of her mind told her that no one was going to reply. But still, the tension caused her to stiffen in anticipation. Danny paused, as he noticed another one of the devices in the hanging basket. He reached out, and took it, this time the light blinking red, to begin with. Morgan had to bite her tongue to hold in her angry retort. No! Don't take another one stupid! They were obviously not to be tampered with for crying out loud!

A sudden noise shocked them both out of their stupor. Mrgan jumped up, turning her head in the direction of the noise, scrunching her nose in concentration. Danny grabbed her hand and began to speed walk towards the noise, ending up right outside the school hall. Morgan sucked in a breath. This was it. Where everything was about to get much more complicated.

"Hello?" Danny called out towards the school hall. Maybe not the best course of action at that moment. They finally went into the hall and Morgan's eyes widened as the weird robot thing (Skovox blisomething).

"What? Red? Red. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor's panicked cries made Morgan wince and she sprinted across trying to get to somewhere a little safer. Danny's eyes widened as Morganskirted across to where the Doctor was, mouthing her name to come back. The Skovox... Blitzer! That was its name! The Skovox Blitzer can in at that point, whirling turning and flashing.

"Range one point four nine scan complete problem problem." its robotic voice called.

"Listen. I'm unarmed. I'm peaceful. Don't you understand? I, I know that you shouldn't be on this planet but I can help you with that. I-" the Doctor was cut off and Morgan winced a little as it started yelling louder in its robotic voice.

"Problem solution destroy." it screeched, turning to face Danny.

"I want a word with you," Danny called pointing to the Doctor. Morgan winced as his glare landed on her. Ok double meaning, apparently she was included in this.

"Get back!" the Doctor called and the Blitzer turned again to face the Doctor. Wait. That wasn't supposed to happen! Had Morgan changed something? OR was the- The Blitzer suddenly fired a shot directly towards the Doctor. Morgan's eyes widened and in a split second, without thinking she had shoved the Doctor to the ground. Morgan blinked a little disoriented, the Doctor frowning as he quickly regained his posture. Morgan stumbled back up groggily.

The Blitzer suddenly whirled around to Danny again, pointing its gun at him. It started shooting and Danny ducked, throwing himself to the floor, dropping the gadgets he had picked up earlier. Suddenly the circle of the devices turned green, indicating that it was back to normal. Morgan let out a sigh of relief at that. She turned her attention quickly back to Danny as he took a chair and poised it to attack.

There were a few more panicked cries from Danny before the Doctor got to work. He whipped out his sonic, and activated it, creating a glowing vortex. The Blitzer started getting sucked towards its, although, to Morgan's dismay, so did Danny. Was that supposed to happen? Morgan couldn't' remember and she wanted to slap herself for not being able to remember the right stuff when it was actually important.

"Temporal disrupt. Warning warning. Temporal failure." the robotic voice called out again and Morgan turned her panicked gaze back to Danny. At that moment, Clara came running in, grabbing Danny and pulling him away in one fell swoop. Morgan let out a breath of relief, her heartbeat relaxing somewhat.

"No! No, no, no, no! Doctor, stop! Doctor!" Clara's shrill cry broke through the robotic droning and Morgan covered her ears a bit as the noise cut through.

"Warning system failure. Abort. Abort." and then there was a bright flash. Morgan shielded her eyes and peeked through as the Blitzer was sucked away and the vortex disappeared.

"Oh, oh, well done, PE, brilliant work." the Doctor said with his sarcasm but its Scottish ™ voice. "What's this? A chronodyne generator? I'll just deactivate that, shall I? I've got a swimming certificate so that qualifies me to meddle with higher technology." Morgan winced a little at that, it wasn't a lie, Danny had done something stupid, but the doctor was being a bit harsh. She was one to talk... "Never mind that some people are actually trying to save the planet. Oh, no. There's only room in my head for cross-country and the offside rule." Morgan crossed her arms at that. Ok, Danny had been an idiot, but it was wrong of the Doctor to belittle him like that.

"Danny, what are you doing here?" Clara asked, turning to face Danny.

"I was checking up on him." Danny replied, "He's been up to something, fiddling with the electric," he continued, "but what the?" Danny's voice got a little lower as he broke down. "No. What- Did you see that thing? Tell me you saw that thing." Morgan froze, everything finally hitting her. Alien, murder. Robot. She had almost died, the adrenaline was wearing off and everything came crashing down, threatening to spill through. Morgan shakily stood taller, trying to convince herself that she was fine. Morgan was fine. _Morgan was not fine._

"I saw the thing, yeah. Doctor, are we safe? Is the planet safe? It's gone?" Clara called again from beside Danny across the room. Morgan stood frozen, her feet glued to the ground where she stood, continuously repeating the words over and over again in her head. She was fine. She was fine. She was fine.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, for the moment." the Doctor's voice interrupted her thoughts abruptly. "But the thing is, you see, the chronodyne generators have to be precisely aligned to generate the vortex. But the sergeant here, he went and moved one." Ok, Morgan was pretty sure that Danny got the picture here. The Doctor had hammered home his point enough.

"But the chronodyne worked. It's gone."Clara's voice turned shrill as she tried to explain away the danger. Sometimes it worked, unfortunately, a lot of the time, explaining it away did nothing. Morgan knew that from experience. Morgan's panicked breathing resurfaced at that moment but Morgan shut it off. She needed to distract herself. Think of something else. Chronodyne! That was a fun word to say, right? Chronodyne. Chro-no-dyne. chro-

"But not far enough." the Doctor scanned it with his sonic screwdriver. "The vortex will open here again, but not in a billion years." Yeah, more like tomorrow. Morgan gulped, the thought of the Blitzer returning making her gut clench. She needed to think about something else... Like the Doctor! The Doctor, real and standing right over there!

"Then when?" Clara questioned and Morgan's mind helpfully answered _too soon._

"Er, seventy-four hours." the Doctor started, "Three days?" he reiterated, " Three days to think of something new because now it knows what to expect. Now it has scanned me and it will kill me on sight, thanks to PE here." the Doctor spat, gesturing to Danny.

"Clara, why are you talking to him like that? Why are you using words like chronodyne?" Morgan winced a little at that. "Was that thing a space thing? Oh. Oh, my God, you're from space." not really but it was a solid effort from Danny there, "You're a spacewoman. You said you were from Blackpool." Technically, even if Clara was a spacewoman, she could still be from Blackpool. Not all aliens were born off-world.

Morgan paused her thoughts for a moment, noticing that the doctor had started writing in a notebook. She slowly made her way closer to him, trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible, trying to see what he was writing. Morgan's attempt was brutally interrupted by her being yanked sideways by a strong hand. Morgan looked up wide-eyed, tearing her arm out of Danny's grasp and whirling around to face him.

"Morgan get away from him, he's a space thing-" Danny pulled her behind him and Morgan sighed. Now would probably not be a good time to mention that she was a space thing too. Or half-space thing. Morgan winced. She did not look forward to that day.

"It's a play!" Clara suddenly exclaimed. Morgan resisted the urge to groan at the terrible lie. "For the summer fete." Clara continued, looking down for a moment, obviously making it up on the spot.

"It's a what?" the Doctor cried offended from the corner where he was sitting.

"Yes, it's a play. Shut up, it is a play. We are rehearsing a play. Shh, shh, shh, shh. A surprise play. And, er, you see, the vortex thing is, is a lighting effect." did Clara seriously think that they had no brains at all? Maybe they would have actually believed her if she had any acting ability at all! Which made the fact that this was supposedly a play even less unlikely since Clara seemed to have no acting ability whatsoever. "Very clever. And that thing is, is one of the kids. In fancy dress. Really, really good fancy dress."

"How stupid do you think I am?" Danny cried, Morgan nodded and was about to step in before the Doctor gave his sarcastic remark.

"I'm willing to put a number on it." the Doctor said offhandedly. Morgan shot him a glare but the Doctor didn't seem to notice. Ok, enough was enough, Morgan marched up to stand beside Danny.

"Ok, this is enough Everyone shut up for one second!" Morgan cried, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Everyone thankfully stopped talking. For a grand total of one second. "Why don't we actually listen to what everyone has to say instead of jumping to co-" Morgan bristled as Danny cut her off suddenly. She glared straight at Danny. Maybe if she glared at him enough he would actually listen and shut up and let her speak.

"I'm not a moron, Clara. And he's not the caretaker. He's your dad. Your space dad." Danny finished, looking close to tears. Morgan gave a loud exasperated sigh groaning in frustration

"Oh, genius. That is, that is really, really brilliant reasoning. How can you think that I'm her dad when we both look exactly the same age?" the Doctor exclaimed and Morgan just shot him an incredulous look. She knew this was coming, but this was ridiculous.

"We do not look the same age." Clara cried, her voice shrill.

"I was being kind. Right, I'm going to hypnotize him. I'm going to erase his memory. " The Doctor said, then paused for a second before adding, "And then we'll figure out what to do with this one" he gestured toMorgan and she crossed her arms giving him an unimpressed glare. Relly Doctor? 'This one'? What was she, an object!

"Doctor, stop!" Clara cried, grabbing her head in frustration. Morgan took a tiny step back. He didn't do it in the show, but now that she was here, things could change. It was always good to be a little careful anyway.

"Tiny little brain, only take a moment." the Doctor said and Morgan turned her rage on him. Tiny little- Oh she would show hi-

"He's my boyfriend." Clara cried out. Morgan winced.

"Well, I'll try not to erase the whole thing. I'll leave the bits that-" the doctor really did not have any social skills. No social skills whatsoever.

"He's my boyfriend. I thought you'd figured this out." Clara cried out again

"Him?" the Doctor said incredulously, "Then who's she then, your daughter?" Morgan jumped a little, surprised at being mentioned.

"Yes, him." Clara cried out again, she paused adding in "And no, that's just Morgan" Oh yes, just Morgan. No need to pay attention to her. She was just some stupid 14 year old without a brain.

"No, he's not." the Doctor argued back. Morgan took a few steps away, getting progressively away from the idiotic argument.

"Yes, he is." Clara rebutted.

"Yes, I am," Danny confirmed, bristling at the Doctor denying the fact.

"But he's a PE teacher." No, he was a MATHS teacher! God, when Morgan got near that chair she was going to throw it at the Doctor! "You wouldn't go out with a PE teacher. It's a mistake." So? Even if it was a mistake it wasn't the Doctor's decision to make. It was Clara's life, Clara's decision. "You've made a boyfriend error." Ok. that was enough. He had crossed the line and there was no going back now.

"You're wrong." Morgan started, stalking towards the group, arms crossed from the draft. She really should have brought a coat, "And even if you were right, it isn't your decision to make, Doctor," she spat his name out, just to make it very clear how she felt about all of this, "It's Clara's. She is a grown adult and can make her own decisions. It's her life, not yours." Morgan finished, now only about a meter away from each respectively. There was a beat of silence. Clara shot her a grateful smile, relaxing her tense muscles a bit. Morgan gave her a small smile at that.

"Yeah," Danny was the first to speak and all of their eyes shot to him as he did, "And also, I am not a PE teacher. I am a maths teacher." Danny held himself taller and Morgan gave a smile at that. He may have made some choices that he regretted earlier in his life, but his past mistakes didn't define who he was now. His actions in the present defined that. And in Morgan's humble opinion, he was a pretty damn good math teacher.

"You're a soldier." the Doctor dismissed, he turned to face Clara. "Why would you go out with a soldier? Why not get a dog or a big plant?

"Because I love him!" burst out suddenly. Everything fell silent. And the Doctor, well his expression melted for a moment behind his facade to show something else for a split second. Was it hurt? Disbelief?

"Why would you say that? Is this part of the surprise play?" the Doctor said as if maybe Clara had made a mistake in her words.

"There is no surprise play." Clara sighed, and the atmosphere shifted. Morgan couldn't exactly place it, but everyone seemed to have started processing everything.

"Oh, it's a roller coaster with you tonight, isn't it? What about the handsome one, the one with the bow tie?" the Doctor added masking his almost slip up with his usual angry facade. The Doctor sill missed his past regeneration, didn't he? Morgan's heart clenched a little.

"Who? Adrian? No, no, no. He's just a friend and not my type." Clara added at the end, trying to make it clear that she did not like Adrian. So that was his name. Morgans stored that information for later.

"Clara, are you going to explain any of this?" Danny burst out "Who is this guy?" Clara paused for a moment, looking between the two of them.

"The Doctor is-" Clara paused and both Danny and the Doctor raised their eyebrows at her. Morgan felt kind of bad for Clara, being put in between the two. One angry idiot and one scared and confused idiot. Maybe not the best combo.

"Go on." the Doctor urged on, and Clara cleared her throat.

"Yes, explain. Who is he? Why have you never mentioned him?" Danny asked.

Because!" Clara started, trailing off "he's an alien." Morgan sucked in a breath, then realized she was supposed to act surprised at this new information. She shot the Doctor a raised eyebrow as if she were slightly skeptical of this information.

"Er, are you an alien?" Danny asked, and Clara shook her head and laughed a little.

"No, no, no, I'm still from Blackpool. Me and the Doctor, we travel through time and space." Clara explained and Morgan couldn't' help but speak.

"Space AND time?" Morgan asked and Clara paused a bit at Morgan's remake, "Does that mean you can go back in time and meet Einstein? Or Marie Curie? Or go to an alien beach?" Morgan piped up, reciting her list of places she wanted to go. The Doctor raised an amused eyebrow at her as he sauntered off towards the TARDIS.

"An alien beach?" the Doctor asked and Morgan nodded. He raised another one of his attack eyebrows. But his expression had softened already, becoming less angry and more 'I'm about to show off my TARDIs and they are going to say that it's bigger on the inside!'. Morgan smiled at that thought as the Doctor pulled the curtain away to reveal that magical blue box.

"Exhibit A." the Doctor proclaimed, making a big gesture of showing off the TARDIS.

"It's called a Tardis, but it's disguised as an old police phone box," Clara explained and Morgan smiled, walking right up to the blue box herself. She smiled and reached her hand out to touch her but hesitated. The Doctor gave her a cautious look as she neared his TARDIS but Morgan paid it no attention.

She reached out again this time laying her hand on the TARDIS' wooden surface. The surface was smooth and there was a warm hum emanating from her. Morgan smiled warmly at the TARDIs. _Hello._ She thought and a warm tingling filled her mind. Morgan relaxed into its warm embrace, running her hands across the smooth surface. A warm tingle went up her spine as Clara continued to explain the TARDis to Danny, but Morgan was too distracted to listen. _My name's Morgan._ Morgan introduced herself, and another wave of warmth went through her mind. Morgan smiled at that, not quite making out words, but imagining it to be somewhere along the lines of ' _My name is Sexy'._

Morgan froze as a hand touched her shoulder, nudging her gently to the side a bit. The Doctor then threw open the doors of the TARDIS, stepping back as Danny walked forward cautiously.

"Voila." the Doctor proclaimed, Morgan stared wide-eyed at the expanse within. It was hard to describe, exactly like the show yet somehow more. The columns were there, the low lighting, the bookshelves (that Morgan was definitely NOT planning on raiding later) She was humming, it was emanating from the whole TARDIS, even stronger now that the door was now open. It was almost overwhelming, except the warmth was so comforting that it was impossible to even feel that way. Morgan thanked the TARDIS for that again in her head.

"And we travel the universe in it," Clara added. Morgan continued to stare in wonder at the TARDIS, a large grin sneaking its way onto her face. She took a tentative step forward, then another, standing in the doorway of the TARDIS, running her hands along the inside. Danny leaned in at that moment, shooting a worried glance at Morgan who was now standing fully in the entranceway of the TARDIS.

"It's bigger on the inside," Morgan whispered from where she was standing inside. She paused, looking back to find the Doctor watching her from outside with an amused smile. Danny grabbed her shoulder, trying to pull her away but Morgan shrugged it off.

"And what about that thing? Did you bring that here?" Danny asked, his voice returning to a more panicked state. Morgan glanced his way, stiffening at the mention of the Blitzer.

"No. I'm going to protect you from that thing." the Doctor declared, stepping in and slowly peeling Morgan away from the inside of the TARDIS. Morgan followed him, a pit of slight disappointment laying in her stomach.

"You said it was coming back." Danny challenged and Morgan winced a little, coming back to her senses.

"Yes, it is coming back, thanks to you." the Doctor said emphasizing the 'you' bit. Morgan stopped away towards Danny giving him a comforting squeeze. He shot her a grateful smile. His smile turned worried and he turned his gaze back to the Doctor.

"This is a school." Danny said, "there are students here that could get hurt" everyone glanced at Morgan at that point making her flinch, "We have to evacuate, call the Army." he spoke hurriedly and Morgan raised an eyebrow at his statement.

"I'm not sure that's the best-" Morgan started but the Doctor quickly cut Morgan off.

"And that is the most dangerous thing right there." the Doctor marched past Morgan and closed the TARDIS doors.

"Are you sure hypnotizing's not on the menu?" the Doctor asked and Morgan whirled around to face him. Even though she knew he wasn't going to do t, a tiny part of her still worried. What if, after all, of this, she just forgot. And she'd continue going on following Clara, being none the wiser that she had had the opportunity already- What if that had already happened? And Morgan wouldn't even remember-

"Yes." Clara breathed quickly and Morgan nodded her head adamantly in agreement with Clara. She took a subconscious step away from the Doctor.

"But we need to get help." Danny cried, "This is an emergency." he reiterated. He did have a point honestly and if Morgan didn't know what she did she might have even agreed with him.

"Look, take him away. Shut him up, shut him down. Up or down, it doesn't matter to me. I've got a lot of work to do." the Doctor said, "Again." he spat emphasizing the word. Morgan winced. She should have done more to stop Danny from touching the gadgets. Or chronodyne thingys. She should have done more than just stand there and argue and act as if she was better than the other three. Because the truth was, she wasn't.

"Will you be okay?" Clara asked, the worry leaking into her tone. _I'm always ok. Is ok timelord talk for really not ok at all, because then I'm ok too._ Morgan gave a sad smile as the memory of Donna resurfaced. Of the forest of the Dead. _The one where River died._ Her mind added helpfully.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" the Doctor said quickly. "I was fine till you three blundered in." the Doctor emphasized the word fine and gave each of them a glare.

"Am I just being ignored?" Danny complained and Morgan sighed.

"Welcome to the club. We watch BAck to the Future every-" Morgan paused as Clara began to lead Danny away. Ignoring Morgan. Again.

"Come on, Danny. It's all right, it's. Come on, it's all fine."Clara whispered, continuing to comfort Danny as they went down the stairs of the stage towards the exit.

"That's ok," Morgan muttered, "Yeah, just keep on ignoring me, I'll be fine over here" Morgan continued, she raised her voice a bit so that they could better hear her, "I'll be sleeping over at a friend's house tonight Danny!" Morgan called down and Danny nodded, evidently still dazed. The Doctor walked down the stairs to go talk to Clara and Morgan followed, hugging herself as another draft went through the building. They really needed better heating in that school. Well, to be fair it was really old.

"And when this is all over, you can finish the job." the Doctor called as he went down the stairs. Clara turned around.

"How do you mean?" Clara asked while Morgan was standing awkwardly behind the Doctor as he stood on the stairs facing Clara.

"Well, you've explained me to him, you haven't explained him to me." the Doctor finished and Clara looked back one last time with a pained expression as she began to lead Danny off. There were a few beats of silence before Morgan cleared her throat. The Doctor turned, slightly startled.

"Oh, you're still there," the Doctor remarked, and Morgan crossed her arms. Although it was less out of anger now and more out of the cold. She really should have bought a coat. "I thought you would've gone away with your what's he, your dad?" the Doctor asked and Morgan shook her head.

"He's my dad's friend," she corrected quickly, "And uh, I have to go, so could you please get out of my way?" Morgan said gesturing at where he was still standing on the stairs.

"Oh yeah," the Doctor said and quickly went down the stairs. Morgan climbed down herself and started towards the door before being interrupted by the Doctor's voice.

"You not bringing anything to your friend's house," he called from behind her. Morgan turned around to face him and gave him a mischievous smile. But it quickly fell more into a sad smile but she fixed her face, hoping to mask it. "For your sleepover" he called again walking closer until he was beside her.

"I'm not going to my friend's house," Morgan admitted. She took out her phone, opening her texts. Nothing from her father, he'd probably already gone to sleep. She sighed, "I'm walking home. Why don't you go," she waved her hand around gesturing to the TARDIS, "Do whatever alien-y stuff you're supposed to do to make sure no one else gets hurt." Morgan finished making her way to the door. The Doctor continued to follow her.

"Won't your parents be worried?" he asked and Morgan shrugged.

"My dad's probably already asleep by now, he had a long day at work," she paused, "I'll be fine anyway" She started down the hallway, the Doctor still following. Morgan sped up a little. Her lids were drooping and she had to hold in a yawn. The faster she walked the faster she'd get into her bed. Also, maybe the Doctor's stop following her and get back to what he was supposed to be doing then.

"You aren't wearing a coat," the Doctor remarked, Morgan raised an eyebrow at that comment. Yeah, no kidding. "Did you bring a coat?" the Doctor asked again and Morgan shot him a glare. No, obviously not!

"No, otherwise I'd be wearing it!" Morgan pointed out and the Doctor's face dropped in an 'o'.

"Why didn't you bring a coat, what if you freeze to death or something!" The Doctor complained and Morgan sighed. He'd said almost the exact same thing a few days ago hadn't he? "And then if you die, then I would never hear the end of it from Clara," the Doctor continued. Really, that was his reasoning? He had a strange way of getting to his point, didn't he? They would have to start the classes on how to properly interact with humans earlier than she'd planned.

"So you don't want me to freeze to death, because Clara'd get angry at you?" Morgan clarified and Doctor paused and sputtered incoherently for a bit.

"Wel no, that's not what-" he paused searching his coat pocket for a second, his arm disappearing into it. So, bigger on the inside? Morgan leaned closer trying to see how big exactly the pockets were but the Doctor swatted her away.

"How'd you fit a coat in there," Morgan decided to ask to pass the time, the Doctor glanced at her as he continued searching.

The Doctor smiled "They're bigger on the inside," Morgan grinned at that comment.

"Of course they are," Morgan said, rolling her eyes at that glancing at the time on her phone. Her eyes widened. It was getting late, she should probably be heading home soon.

"There we go!" the Doctor exclaimed, "Here, you can keep it," he grinned and Morgan's eyes widened again, probably almost as wide as Clara's. It was beige and warm-looking. But that wasn't the main issue. The main issue was, well-

"That's my coat..." Morgan trailed off, furrowing her eyebrows. That was definitely her coat, she had worn that a few weeks ago. Strange. The Doctor frowned, taking the coat from her quickly and sonicing it. He frowned harder as he examined the results. "What's wrong," Mrgan asked, trying to peer over his shoulder. The Doctor quickly put his screwdriver away handing the coat back to Morgan.

"Nothing!" the Doctor exclaimed. Morgan shot him a skeptical look. Ok, so something was wrong, but that wasn't really that important right now. _Never ignore a coincidence. Unless you're busy, then always ignore a coincidence._ "Sooo..." the Doctor continued pacing around.

"Sooo?" Morgan echoed starting back towards the door.

"One more thing before you go," the Doctor said, "give me your phone, I need to do a thing" Morgan paused, taking out her phone, then reconsidered for a moment. What thing? Was he giving her universal roaming? Want it a little early for that? Or was he just going to delete everything off her phone?

"What thing?" Morgan questioned, holding her phone a safe distance away from the Doctor.

"Just give me your phone, I promise I won't go snooping," he joked and Morgan deflated, handing it over to him. He took out his sonic again and started doing something. Morgan couldn't really tell from her vantage point.

Morgan frowned "What are you doing?" She tried to lean over to see again but the Doctor just put his screwdriver away and gave her phone back.

"Just added something to your phone in case you get into any trouble while you walk home. Just press the button and it should notify me, but only for emergencies!" the Doctor clarified at the end, "Also, you may find a few things are missing... sorry" he finished and Morgan narrowed her eyes. Of course. What was it with the Doctor and accidentally deleting things. She deflated a bit though. He was making sure she didn't die on her way home, she commended him at least for that.

"Thank you," Morgan said, giving him a small smile.

He nodded. "Yeah yeah, now go on and do whatever it is you students do these days," Morgan put on the coat and walked out the doors, disappearing into the distance. Tomorrow. Tomorrow everything would fall into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed that! Next chapter comes out tomorrow so stay tuned! Feel free to voice any thoughts or feedback you have in the comments below!


	9. It's bigger on the inside!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second part of the last chapter is out! Hope everyone enjoys it! Don't forget to comment down below if you have any suggestions/feedback/thoughts! Next chapter comes out next Sunday so stay tuned! Allons-y!

Morgan crouched outside of the storeroom, peeking in. She hid beside the door as Clara and Danny moved to go in watching. Waiting. Should she go in now? No. If she went in now, then everyone would be arguing and she would just aggravate that further. Well, she could try to keep quiet- Ok, she shouldn't lie to herself, there was no way Morgan was not going to end up arguing if she went in right now. So later. After. 

“Okay, I think we've just got time before parents' evening,” Clara called as she and Danny neared the TARDIS. 

Danny gave her a skeptical look, thankfully not noticing Morgan “An invisibility watch? Not even a ring.” He paused, putting the watch on. 

“Press the button on the side, you're invisible,” Clara explained. Morgan noted that down for later. So that was the button to press... “You'll see me with the Doctor, the other me. The exactly the same other me. Okay?” Clara said, a hint of worry bleeding into her tone. They passed Morgan without seeing her, stepping into the TARDIS. Morgan strained her ears trying to hear, but couldn’t make out anything. She’d just have to wait. 

Morgan stood there waiting. Ok, so after they went out, then what? Well, then she would go and try to convince the TARDIS to open. It was worth a try. Although the TARDIS might hate her. Well, she could fix that... Well maybe…. It was at least 5 minutes before Morgan could properly hear anything they were saying. 

“Ah. Sir!” Danny suddenly cried out making Morgan jump out of her skin. So suddenly, all of her thoughts and plans were scrambled and she had to piece them back together slowly to get them working coherently again. 

“And you do not call me sir.” the Doctor called, from inside his voice getting dangerously low in tone. 

Danny cried out again “As you wish, sir. Absolutely, sir.” Morgan cringed a bit as she waited for what was to come. 

“And you can get out of my Tardis!” the Doctor yelled back. His attack eyebrows were probably doing some serious work at that point. 

“Immediately, sir!”

“Doctor, this is stupid,” Clara pleaded, finally, a voice of reason! “this is unfair.” her voice cracked as they continued their bickering. Morgan got a sudden urge to run into the TARDIS at that moment to get them all to stop being idiots but stopped herself at the last minute. She would only make things worse. 

“One thing, Clara. I'm a soldier,” Danny spat, “guilty as charged. You see him?” a pause “He's an officer.” Morgan winced as they each dug their own holes deeper. 

“I am not an officer!” the Doctor cried indignantly. 

“I'm the one who carries you out of the fire.” Danny challenged, “He's the one who lights it.”

“Out,” the Doctor said with barely concealed rage, “Now.” the finality in his tone was almost off-putting for Morgan, this was where Danny should probably stop talking. Who was she kidding if she was there, she wouldn't have stopped talking either...

Danny's voice echoed out again, “Right away, sir. Straight now?”

“Yes.” the Doctor finished. Oh god, if Morgan didn’t know how this played out eventually at that moment, she would have been really worried. 

“Am I dismissed?” Danny pushed further, dangerously close to awakening the oncoming storm. Well, if it wasn’t already there. 

“Yes, you are!” the Doctor spat with rage, all of his frustration bursting out. 

“That's him.” Danny said, “Look at him, right now.” he raised his voice a bit, presumably talking to Clara, “That's who he is.” There was a beat of silence, Clara was probably taking it all in. Then all three of them stormed out of the TARDIS, passing by Morgan’s hiding place without even batting an eye. Morgan let out a sigh of relief, somehow, sitting in an obvious place but concealed enough had made them miss her. She waited with bated breath until she could no longer see them, to tiptoe slowly into the room. 

Her heart beat faster, almost as if it wanted to escape out of her chest as she approached the blue box. She hesitated for a moment as she got closer, the gentle warmth emanating from the box, getting stronger the closer she was. She only hesitated a few more seconds before quickly placing her hand onto the smooth wood. A tingle shot up her spine and she almost jumped, except that it was somehow a calming tingle. 

She paused for a few moments, trying to figure out what to say. _Hey, TARDIS,_ she tried. A humorous hum emanated in her mind (it was strange but somehow she could tell that it was humorous). Morgan smiled continued, _So uh hi, could you open the door, please? I’m just kind of curious I promise I_ _won’t be in there long,_ Morgan waited as a mischievous warmth filled her mind. What did that mean? _I’ll help you prank the Doctor if you let me in,_ a musical chiming filled her brain, almost like laughter. Was something funny? Was-

“Hello,” Morgan spun around quickly, her eyes widening as the Doctor stepped forward. Morgan froze, trying to quickly right herself and yanked her hand off of the TARDIS. Morgan blinked, finally noticing that Courtney was beside him too. Oh. This was a scene wasn't t? Morgan didn't remember this one though, so it probably wasn't that important. 

“Uh” that was the only coherent word Morgan could get out. The Doctor simply smirked as Courtney eyed the box skeptically. How come she hadn't heard them talking before? Her ears worked, didn't they? 

“What's in the box?” Courtney piped up “It's not really a policeman, is it?” 

Morgan raised an eyebrow, “Of course there's no policeman in there Courtney, why would they randomly sit in a box at a school all day,” She continued, “It would get boring. Have you ever seen a policeman sit in a box all day before Courtney?" Morgan continued and Courtney shot her a glare. Morgan elected to ignore it. 

“You want to know what's in that box? I'll tell you what's in that box.” the Doctor said, “It's a time machine, It also travels in space- “ Courtney tried to cut him off but he shushed her, “And it usually contains a man who just wants to get on with his work of preventing the end of the world, but keeps being interrupted by annoying, excessively argumentative," the Doctor shot Morgan a pointed look and she glared back at him, "boring little humans.” he was finally cut off suddenly by Courtney and Morgan frowned. Was that supposed to happen? 

“Don’t say that in front of Morgan!” Courtney cried, “She might try and steal it!” Morgan turned to her bristling indignantly. Why would Morgan try to steal it! She would at the very least borrow it, not steal. 

“No, I wouldn’t!” Morgan defended waving her arms around to prove her point. The Doctor just gave an amused smile at the two girls arguing. 

“You so wish you could have your own time machine,” Courtney sang and Morgan scowled her face heating up with embarrassment. 

“Shut up,” Morgan bit back through gritted teeth. Courtney just smirked. Did she really have to embarrass Morgan in front of the Doctor? Courtney turned back to face the Doctor. 

“Cool. So, that's really a spaceship?” she asked. Courtney peeked over towards the TARDIS where Morgan was standing, the Doctor pulling her back by her collar. 

“I'm serious. I'm trying to save this planet.” the Doctor said with a frustrated undertone. 

“End of the world for me tonight, whatever you do.” Courtney said, shrugging, “Parents' evening.” Both girls shared a look, a mischievous grin spreading across Morgan's face. 

“Well, have you told them it's parent’s evening yet?” Morgan asked, shooting her a smirk. Courtney nodded sadly. Oh well, it was worth a try. Although, now that Morgan remembered, they were in the episode, so they were going to be there...

“Is your name really Disruptive Influence?” the Doctor asked, knitting his eyebrows together. 

“Yes,” Morgan said at the same time as Courtney said:

“Courtney Woods.” Courtney shot Morgan a glare and Morgan blinked back innocently. The Doctor just gave her an amused look, “Can I go in space?” Courtney turned back to face the Doctor. 

“I'll let you know. I may have a few vacancies,” the Doctor glanced at Morgan and her hope swelled up. Vacancies? As in plural? Did he mean- “But not right now.” right. End of the world. Tiny bit important. 

He ushered Courtney out but paused when he noticed that Morgan was still there. He raised an eyebrow at her in questioning. Morgan raised one right back at him. 

“You said you were gonna stop that thing. I want to help” Morgan stated. And he was helping whether he liked it or not.

“Won’t PE get angry? Or not let you?” the Doctor asked and Morgan sighed. She ignored his PE comment and replied.

“Danny doesn’t have to know, now does he?” Morgan said and the Doctor gave her a skeptical look. 

“What are you? Like 7?” the Doctor asked and continued before she could contradict, “It’s a tiny bit dangerous, murder robot and all, maybe-”

“I’m 14” Morgan corrected, “And I’m going to help whether you like it or not” the Doctor sighed and seemed to give up on the argument.

“Fine, but if Clara or PE get angry, it’s not my fault!” the Doctor said, Morgan nodded, “Also, aren’t you a bit short? You sure you aren’t 7?” 

“Pretty sure I know my own age, Doctor. Actually no, 100% sure,” Morgan corrected herself before the Doctor could pull a Mickey the idiot. _You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?_

“That's right, keep your spirits up,” the Doctor said offhandedly and Morgan rolled her eyes. Then, all of a sudden, he swung open the doors to the TARDIS. Morgan blinked and stepped forward carefully, eyes wide taking it all in again. She carefully made her way to the edge of the railing, running her hands along it. She walked around along the raised platform, the warm hum filling her mind again. It was so- well big! Morgan had seen it before yesterday, but she hadn't had the proper chance to fully grasp the extent of it. She leaned into it her excitement bubbling up and threatening to burst out. She was in the TARDIs. The real TARDIs With the Doctor! And oh god it was bigger on the inside! And she was beautiful and well bigger on the inside and it was just so wonderful!

Morgan wandered around, stopping just short of one of the bookcases. She ran her fingers along the embellished smooth spines pulling one out and flitting through the pages. _The theory of everything. A Quantum Theory of Gravity._ Oh-was this what she thought it was? The solution to combine Quantum Mechanics with relativity! Morgan flipped to the front page scanning the index. She was pulled out of it suddenly by the Doctor pulling the book out of her hands. _Later._ Morgan promised herself. 

“Time and Relative Dimensions in space,” his voice called from beside her. Morgan turned startled to stare at the Doctor, “TARDIS for short.” Yes, she knew that, but hearing it said aloud, from the Doctor no less, that was just- 

“I already saw part of it before,” Morgan started, “But- it's so much bigger on the inside, than it is,” Morgan paused. Oh OH! This was the perfect opportunity, “on the outside?” Morgan spun around hopping down the stairs towards the console. What did he say next? She paused. Something about non-euclidian geometry? Or something

“Yes, it is bigger on the inside.” the Doctor grinned but then his face grew more serious, “Unfortunately though, the world does still need saving,” he reminded her and her giddiness fell. Right, the world did still need saving. A tiny spark of disappointment flickered but Morgan smothered it. He was going to save the world anyway. This was an actual adventure, with the Doctor! It may be on earth, but that was a decent start. But really, the only real thought going through Morgan’s head was: _It’s bigger on the inside. The TARDIS, she really is so much bigger on the inside._

* * *

The soft hum of the TARDIS faded into the background. It had been a few hours after school had ended, so the Parent's evening would be starting soon. She should probably be there, well her Dad probably wouldn't be able to make it anyway so what was the point? Her gut clenched at the thought. That didn't matter... Morgan followed the Doctor as he carried his toolbox across the TARDIS. She smiled and couldn't help squealed internally again but crushed that squealing. She needed to focus. Real lives were at stake here- She froze as a loud obnoxious beeping sound broke out, breaking her out of her stupor. 

“No, no, no. No! No, no, no, no, no!” the Doctor cried out and Morgan’s eyes widened. Oh god, the Blitzer it was back wasn't it! She whirled around.

“Is it ba-” the Doctor quickly cut her off as he swung around and grabbed his backpack. 

“No time to explain!’ he grabbed her hand and started off into a sprint. Morgan stumbled trying to keep up, grasping onto the Doctor’s hand for dear life. How one earth was he so fast? She really needed to practice running more. Well, soon she’d probably be practicing every day, Morgan mused. 

They stopped abruptly outside the parent evening hall, the Doctor gesturing wildly for Clara to come. Morgan stumbled at the abrupt stop in pace, having to spend a few minutes to right herself. She took a few laboured breaths, trying to get her energy back u for when they'd have to inevitably start running again. 

Only a few minutes later, Clara and Danny stumbled out, and they all started towards the door that leads outside. They stopped just outside the door and Morgan took a moment to breathe. Morgan took a few deep breaths and froze again fumbling about as the Doctor shoved some random gadget into her hands. She took it earnestly and adjusted her grip, making sure to hold it securely. 

“What's happening?” Clara asked hurriedly, her eyes quickly flitting from the Doctor to Morgan. She frowned when her eyes landed on Morgan but brushed it off. 

“Clara, the vortex is opening,” he explained, 

“You said Thursday night. “ Danny asked, his voice turning worried, “Right, hall, quick.” the Doctor just gave Danny a look of pure and utter frustration at that moment.

“PE, shut up.” he dismissed, “Clara, it'll scan the area. If it gets to parents' evening, it'll kill them all.” Morgan gulped. That wasn’t going to happen, but still. Also what if, just by being there, she somehow changed something? What if-

“We've got to evacuate.” Danny continued worriedly, He turned his worried expression to Morgan, "Morgan. what the hell are you doing here?" Morgan shrugged, flinching. 

“SHUT UP!” the Doctor bellowed, pinning Danny with a glare filled with seething frustration. 

Clara turned to face the Doctor, “Quickly. What do I do?”

“It'll be here any second.” the Doctor said handing her his sonic screwdriver quickly, “Get to the hall.” he gestures towards the hall.

“Give it some squirts of helicon energy, setting number forty-one. No more than three seconds each, random pulses.” the Doctor explained hurriedly crouching down to face Clara, “Distract it, then you lead it away from the hall, give me two minutes.” 

“Then what?” Clara questioned.

“Just run straight to the Tardis.” the Doctor clarified. Morgan wracked her brain trying to remember what was supposed to happen. Danny did a flip? Or something? Right? 

“But your gadget isn't ready yet.” Danny reminded the Doctor, “Twenty four hours, you said.” Morgan winced at that. Yeah, they’d have to revise that plan. 

“Yes, well, I've revised that down to two minutes.” he paused, “Probably. Clara, go.” he gestured for her to run and she sprang off to the right. 

“On my way,” she called. Morgan strained her neck to discern the general direction that she was going in. 

“You're using her like a decoy?” Danny cried, getting frustrated himself. 

“No, not like a decoy. As a decoy.” Oh yes, because that was so different. Why did the Doctor have to continue wasting time on petty arguments? “Don't they teach you anything at stupid school?”

“Doctor, shut up, stop arguing start doing, ” Morgan warned, “You’re wasting time.” the Doctor ignored her and Morgan fumed, balling her hands into fists. Did he want the Blitzer to destroy the school or something?

“Well, is there anything I can do?” Danny cried out and Morgan just shot him a glare. No, they didn't have time to argue right now! Why did none of them ever just shut up and get doing what they were supposed to be doing? Was it really that hard to not be idiots or jerks?

“Yes. Yes, and this is very, very important.” the Doctor emphasized, “Leave us alone!” Morgan snorted a bit at that but then fixed her expression, running off after the Doctor as he sprinted in the direction of the storeroom. They ran off, back into the school through the hallways. Morgan had to take quick breaths in order to keep up, and she was decidedly entirely out of breath by the time they reached the Caretaker's office. She fell down, holding her weight on her knees as she heaved in heavy breaths. 

Her eyes snapped to the door as a loud mechanical sound echoed into the room. She whirled around to face the door, just as the Doctor did the same. 

“Problem solution destroy.” Morgan was thrown back by the explosion as if blew open the door, banging her ankle on something hard and probably would've been knocked unconscious were it not for the Doctor standing behind her. He quickly stepped up and grabbed her arms giving her support stumbling back a little but then righting himself. Morgan continued breathing heavily, her vision tunnelling everything becoming slightly blurry. She grabbed onto something- a table to steady herself and blinked away the haze. 

“Destroy. Destroy.” the Blitzer howled and Morgan scrunched her nose as the distinct smell of burnt metal and plastic wafted through the air. 

“Doctor, now!” Clara shouted from the other side of the Blitzer, “It's got to be now!” Morgan took in a few more breaths to try to calm her heart but it only made her more nervous. Before she knew it, she was hyperventilating. 

“Twenty seconds.” the Doctor called over to Clara, “Morgan, give me it now, “ Morgan stumbled a bit handing the gadget she had been holding the Doctor. He stepped forward, pushing Morgan behind him as the Blitzer approached. 

“DESTROY. DESTROY.” it screeched again, causing a faint ringing in Morgan's ears from the pitch and sheer volume. 

“Doctor!” Clara shrieked from where she was standing, tumbling down to dodge the bright weapons as it fired. The lasers sizzled as they continuously dug into the walls and floor shooting left right and center. 

“Am I green? Am I green?” the Doctor yelled out as Clara came over to join them.

Morgan and Clara both called out in unison, “You're green!” The Doctor nodded, bringing the microphone up to his mouth. 

“Stop! Skovox Blitzer!” the Doctor ordered. The Blitzer froze. 

Its robotic voice called, “Awaiting orders.” Morgan stepped back a little, knowing that it may very well start again soon. 

“Superior Skovox Artificer. Analyze stop analyze stop.” the Doctor yelled into the microphone, being as clear and concise with his words as he could to get the murder robot to understand. Mogan sucked in a breath. The next few moments were critical. 

“Superior recognized.” it bellowed, “Pattern one one oh, Orders orders!”

“Why's it listening to you?” Clara asked. Was it really important to know why at that exact time? They were in a time crunch, it was listening to the Doctor he could explain later! 

Morgan cut in before the Doctor could, “It thinks he’s it’s general” Clara nodded, albeit probably still a bit confused. It didn’t matter she didn't need to completely understand in order for them to stop it. 

“Initiate input. Commence shutdown protocol. No conflict. Conclusion?” the Doctor instructed, waiting for it to respond. 

“Problem solution,” it called out.

“Conclusion.“ the Doctor repeated, and Morgan’s gaze shifted to behind the Blitzer, where Danny was probably standing right now. 

“Final input code missing. Emergency terminate. Initiate self-destruct in nine eight” Oh god, Danny better hurry up. And the Doctor better too! The pounding in her ears made it hard to think but the thoughts that were coherent enough to be understood were still panicked. Morgan didn't want to die! She hadn't even had a chance to travel the universe yet! And when she died, she no longer existed and then her consciousness would just cease to be. Morgan shivered at that. _Or she’d be turned into a cyberman by Missy._ Morgan couldn’t decide which was worse. _Probably the dying,_ her brain countered selfishly. 

“The Doctor’s eyes widened with fear, “The input code. I forgot the final input code.” he cried, frantically stabbing his fingers at his keyboard. The countdown continued and with each second elapsed the feeling of overwhelming dread drew closer. Morgan was shaking and she tried to stop it but just couldn't.

“Do it now!” Clara cried.

“I need time.” came the Doctor’s panicked reply, “Distract it, Clara!” Morgan almost stepped forward but thought better. Danny would be there soon. There was nothing to worry about. They were not going to die. And yet a part of her still was stricken with worry and mind-numbing fear. 

“Me? What can I do?”Clara shrieked as the Blitzer continued its countdown. 

“Oi, Skovox. Over here.” Morgan turned at the sudden voice and a wave of relief washed over her as Danny appeared. He jumped, flipping over the Blitzer as it started its cries of attack once more.

“Artificer Artificer. Stop.” the Doctor called, “Confirm stop override final input code.” Morgan deflated as the Blitzer obeyed. 

“Code accepted. Abort self-destruct. Orders accepted Stop stop stop.”It powered off with a satisfying deafening and Morgan let out yet another sigh of relief. Clara engulfed Danny in a huge hanging onto him as she grinned. 

“Oh, my God! Oh, my God, you were amazing! Oh, my God, you were so brilliant.” Clara praised and they continued talking. Morgan stumbled a bit, a slight wave of dizziness rolling over her. The Doctor shot her a concerned look.

“Are you alright?” he asked, “Not planning on making any puddles are we?” he joked and Morgan shot him a smile.

“Nope no puddles today,” she confirmed, “Although a nice space beach would be nice tomorrow.” The Doctor rolled his eyes. 

“I’ll see what I can do,” he sighed and Morgan gave him another small smile. Her heart’s rhythm slowed and a wave of calm started to trickle in. They had done it. They had stopped it and now it was all over. A wave of relief washed over her which quickly turned to giddiness. And now Morgan was finally going to live out her dream. All of time and space. Anywhere and Anywhen. Where did she want to start? A beach of course. And alien beach, because why not? But unfortunately, nothing was ever as it seemed. Not even beaches. Especially not beaches. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed that! Next chapter is out next Sunday. Don't forget to comment down below if you have any suggestions/feedback/thoughts! And aurevoir! (Don't ask why I randomly decided to put that in french)


	10. Never go to an alien beach. Worst. Idea. Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter is finally out! It's Morgan's first proper trip out with the Doctor, hope everyone enjoys it! Feel free to comment any thoughts or suggestions down below! Next chapter comes out Friday!

Morgan Flores was walking upstairs to her room. It was a normal day, only a couple of days after the Caretaker. To be more specific, it was a Saturday. That really should have been the first clue. _Saturdays. Big temporal tipping points where anything is possible._ Morgan was sitting at the kitchen table sipping on some tea and scrolling through her phone as her father stumbled down the stairs. 

“Hey, dad!” Morgan called, waving at her father with a smile, “Where are you going? It’s Saturday.” Morgan said. Maybe he had forgotten? That happened sometimes when she was really stressed, thinking it was a school day when it was really the weekend. 

“Sorry Morgan, gotta run some errands for work, we have a big thing coming up.” he gave her a sad smile. Glancing down at his watch his eyes widened and he sprung towards the door, “I'm going to be late! Sorry Morgan I have to go!” he called, slamming the door in his wake as he ran off to the car. Morgan blinked, her smile faltering. 

“Yeah. Sure, that’s fine,” Morgan murmured quietly to herself. “Go on, and continue letting your supervisors push you around and get you to work unreasonable hours when it's probably not very legal,” she sighed resting her chin on her hand. Morgan jumped up at that moment, deciding instead to go up to her room and do, well something. She’d figure out something to do right?

Morgan wobbled slightly as she stood, making sure to keep her tea steady so that it didn't spill. The calming ginger wafted through the air and Morgan took a deep breath in to calm herself. Morgan stepped carefully up the wooden stairs, again making sure not to spill any of the tea on her two-piece _Back to the Future_ pyjamas. Ok, so, she had some short English questions due Monday, so she should probably finish them today so that she would have time to do other stuff tomorrow. Then, she could practice some piano and play a few songs- maybe even some songs from Doctor Who. And yes, she had learnt them from the random Youtube tutorial videos. 

Morgan focused her eyes on her tea as she used her elbow to push open the door. The liquid wobbled slightly and Morgan glared down at it, willing the tea to stay put. Keeping her eyes trained on the cup she slowly backed up kicking the door closed with her foot. Morgan let out a sigh of relief as she lay the mug of tea down carefully on her desk. Leaning back to rest her head on the door Morgan looked up to see-

“Why are you writing random elements in a notebook?” the Doctor called from across the room by her bookshelf. He leafed through a few more pages of her notebook, placing it down on the table. Morgan’s eyes widened, and if she had still been holding her tea, she would’ve dropped it. Thank god she wasn’t.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Morgan shouted in surprise whirling around to see the TARDIS parked neatly beside her bed. Ok, maybe that was a bit harsh, but it was a valid question. 

“You wanted to go to the beach!” the Doctor exclaimed, “You said, oh, yes, a space-beach would be nice tomorrow,” the Doctor continued. Yeah, keyword there TOMORROW. It was not tomorrow. It. Was. Saturday.

“It’s Saturday.” Morgan deadpanned, then leaned over to snatch her notebook out of the Doctor’s hands, “Give me that!” he lifted his arm holding it out of her reach. Morgan crossed her arms and gave a frustrated huff. Why was he even snooping through her personal stuff in the first place! And then he had the audacity to-

“Oh, Saturday, well, I like Saturdays, they aren’t boring, like Sundays,” the Doctor turned back to her after pacing around her room in circles a bit, “By the way, you still haven’t answered my question”

Morgan frowned, “What question?” the Doctor sighed shaking his head as if to say, _stupid humans._

“Why have you got a bunch of elements written in your notebook!” the Doctor asked again and Morgan paused. Oh! She had been trying to learn the Periodic Table Song yesterday, hadn’t she? At this thought, her internal voice rose up to belt out: _THERE’S HYDROGEN AND-_ No stop! Morgan dug her fingers into her desk, grounding herself. She needed to focus!

“Oh, that’s the periodic table song,” Morgan explained but then paused, her eyes flitting back to the TARDIS, “How did you even get here in the first place?” Morgan asked. How did he know where she lived? She didn’t recall ever telling him or mentioning it at all. 

“By time-space machine, haven’t I already explained this to you?” The Doctor complained, and Morgan opened her mouth to correct him but he continued, “I thought you were slightly less stupid than the other pudding brains,” Morgan shot him a glare.

“I meant how did you find out where I lived.” Morgan deadpanned yet again, taking another swipe at the hand that was holding the notebook. The Doctor, unfortunately, got it away in time. Stupid idio-

“Oh that. Well, I tracked your phone program with my sonic screwdriver,” the Doctor explained, displaying his sonic screwdriver in front of Morgan. HE grinned as if this was a perfectly normal thing to do. Which she supposed it was. For him. 

“Sonic screwdriver?” Morgan asked, pretending to be confused, “Ok, but like you could've just knocked or gone through the front door…” Morgan suggested and the Doctor marched across the room, ignoring her, to where her jacket lay strewn lazily across her chair. He picked it up inspecting it. Running his hands along the soft surface he scanned it again, then turned to Morgan

“You said this looked like your jacket, correct?” the Doctor started, the gears in his mind starting to turn, yeah she had said that… Morgan paused, then made a beeline for her closet, rummaging through her clothes until she found the jacket she was talking about.

“Yeah, I did,” Morgan agreed, handing him her jacket, “See look, they’re practically identical,” Morgan continued. And they were, Morgan frowned and tried to find a slight proper difference between them both. Her vision tunnelled as she stared intently at both coats. 

“No,” the Doctor disagreed, “They are exactly identical. He took both jackets in his hands and then carefully touched them together. A spark shot out, making Morgan jump back. “Not even identical, “the Doctor mused, “They are in fact,” he gave a dramatic pause, “The same jacket,” Morgan furrowed her eyebrows. So they were the same jacket at different points in the timestream? Huh.

“Then which one came first?” Morgan decided to ask. It seemed like the most logical question to ask next. “It's not some sort of bootstrap paradox is it?” The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows, turning to give her her original jacket back. 

“Maybe, but I’ll have to look into it a bit more….” he trailed off. Morgan scrunched her nose in thought. What did that mean?

“What does that mean?” Morgan echoed her thoughts as the Doctor opened the doors to the TARDIS.

“I don’t know,” the Doctor frowned. “But I’m sure it's nothing to worry about,” he dismissed. There was a long pause before he said anything else as he continued to stare intently at both jackets. 

He jumped up clapping his hands together “So!” Morgan stood up taller, “You wanted to go to an alien beach didn’t you?” Morgan nodded. “Well, turns out, lucky you, I had one in mind I was planning on visiting anyway. Better get packing,” The Doctor gestured to her closet and Morgan grinned. She ran over to her closet, rummaging about. Pulling out a bunch of random pieces of clothing that seemed comfortable enough for the beach, Morgan paused. She turned and ran beside her bed, grabbing her backpack and starting to carefully place the folded clothes inside. Right before she was about to zip it up, Morgan took her laptop and charger from her desk. She might need it ok? And last but most definitely not least, she took her treasured back to the Future DVD. 

She squealed internally again in giddiness, her heart soaring at the thought. She was going to go to an alien planet. With the Doctor. In the TARDIS! What could be any more perfect than that? She spun around and finally zipped up her backpack. Taking one last look at her room Morgan paused holding the door of the TARDIS for a few moments before smiling. Anywhere and Everywhere. And it all started now.

* * *

Morgan laid back and smiled letting the warmth sink into her skin. The sun was hot and smouldering, but the fresh waves brought a crispy saltiness to the air. She wiggled her toes in the sand letting the rough grains fall through the cracks of her toes. All of those factors were decidedly very earth-like. The sky, however, was not. It was a deep mauve colour which stretched out as far as the eye could see. Not even like a sunset, it was such a different shade that Morgan couldn't even properly describe it. 

Morgan laid back smiling widely up at the sky. Some clouds dotted the sky, but only a few. Morgan traced the edges with her fingers. It almost resembles the shape of a piano, and of course, she had to play abt of imaginary cloud piano with her fingers. She paused and sat up as Clara neared their towel. Squinting she could make out the faint outline of the TARDIS in the distance. Why they had to park so freaking far from the beach was a mystery to her. 

“So, brought all the stuff we packed!” Clara said her voice strained and out of breath as she laid down two heavy bags. One was medium-sized but strangely heavy (from what Morgan could tell) it was gray and unassuming but there was somehow strange about it that Morgan just couldn’t place. The other was decidedly Clara’s, it was small but full, with a very briefcase like feel. Morgan raised an eyebrow. Why did she need that much for a beach? What was she planning on doing, changing every five minutes?

“C-Ms Oswald, what’d you need all that stuff for?” Morgan asked in amusement. Clara just gave Morgan a scolding look. 

“Why wouldn’t I need all of this! It's always good to be prepared,” Clara explained and Morgan gave her a skeptical look, “Also Morgan, we’re not in school now it's ok if you just call me Clara,” Morgan nodded, that would be less confusing because she still referred to Clara as, well, Clara in her head. She turned to face where the Doctor was standing a few paces away from Clara. 

“Also Doctor,” Morgan turned on the Doctor and he stumbled turning to Morgan with an alarmed expression, “Care to explain why you parked the TARDIS all the way out there,” she gestured towards the faint figure of the TARDIS in the distance, “when the beach was here?”

“Ah oh yes, I was going to mention that,” the Doctor said, although, from his tone, Morgan took he had been planning on avoiding that subject. 

“And when exactly were you ‘planning on mentioning that’?” Morgan deadpanned and the Doctor scowled.

He pulled out a strange device from his jacket “Right now of course!” A pause, “This,” he started, “Is a repellent device. It creates a force field so that nothing can get in or out.” he continued, spinning around their little towel, “Unfortunately there's a slight downside,”

“We’re all ears,” Morgan remarked sarcastically, the Doctor gave her a playful glare ( and yes, that was a thing. Deal with it). 

“It creates a slight timelock, ish,” he scratched his head, “If I had parked any closer, it would prevent the TARDIS from taking off or landing anywhere near it.”

“One question Doctor,” Morgan stood up and walked over to face him, “Why exactly is any of this relevant?” 

“Ah, he grinned, “I was getting to that part,” Mrgan raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Oh you were, were you?” Morgan retorted. 

Clara turned to the Doctor crossing her arms, “Doctor, care to explain what’s going on? I thought we were going to the beach. To SWIM,” 

“Well, they have some interesting tides here,” a pause, “And I had been planning on watching them from the cave to see inside the water,” he said, although it had a strange practiced cadence to it, “But of course, you both decided: oh yes, we don’t need a surprise Doctor!” he continued, “We just want everything to be all boring and-”

“Doctor!” Clara warned, trying to nod subtly at Morgan without Morgan noticing. It didn’t work, Morgan wasn’t an idiot. Unlike some pe- “Why don’t we… Go do some swimming! Lighten up the mood a bit yeah?” Clara tried. “Yeah guys, come on?” Her voice faltered a bit, “Let's go swimming!” Clara paused. Ok, this was getting a bit awkward, she should probably break the tension.

“Yeah!” Morgan started awkwardly and suddenly all eyes turned to her, the Doctor giving her his ‘go on, let's see how bad you do’ face. “I’m also going swimming….” she trailed off and Clara gave her a pitying smile. Morgan just sighed, stuck up her chin and started changing out of her dress and into her bathing suit (which she had worn under her dress) It was flowery, flowy and easy to move around in, which was the main reason why she had chosen it. Taking off her glasses, Morgan carefully placed them in their case. She smoothed out her two-piece black tankini with shorts as she prepared to face the water. 

Morgan marched up to the water and stared the dark purple expanse down as she slowly dipped her toe into it. It was warm and not freezing, which was a good sign. She took another tentative step forward. The Doctor stood beside her in his normal clothes and leaned down to inspect the sand. Morgan paused and turned to face the coastline again. The water seemed lower than usual as there was a distinct line in the sand of where it was supposed to be. Well, the Doctor did say that one of the reasons they had gone there was to watch the tide, so Morgan brushed it off. 

“Doctor, aren’t you going to swim with us?” Clara asked and Morgan turned back to face the pair. The Doctor turned from where he was inspecting the sand and let it run through his fingers as he stood to face them. 

“Of course I will!” he dismissed, frowning. He turned away from the sand and started to walk towards where both girls were wading in the water. 

“Yeah, but Doctor, where's your bathing suit?” Clara asked again and Morgan nodded. 

“You planning on flying on top of the water or something Doctor?” Morgan said, “Just saying, probably not the best idea, also doesn't exactly count as swimming.”

“I’m already in my bathing suit!” the Doctor cried offended. He was decidedly still wearing his normal clothes.

“That’s your bathing suit?” Clara asked skeptically. The Doctor nodded, “But those are your normal clothes Doctor!”

“Yes and now I’ve updated them to be waterproof!” he displayed his clothes proudly while Morgan just blinked back unimpressed. “It's called being inventive and reusing!” he tried again but Clara just shook her head while Morgan followed suit quickly after giving a long sigh. Morgan paused for a moment. So, his clothes couldn’t get wet… Hmmm… She turned to where the Doctor was slowly wading in beside her as Clara got farther and farther away. 

“So you said those clothes couldn’t get wet… Doctor…” Morgan started, a small smirk growing on her lips.

“Yeah, I did say that very keen observation skills!” the Doctor said sarcastically, not properly catching on to her plan. Morgan smirked again and he looked over to her with a confused stare. Morgan leaned down and tested the water with her fingers for a few moments. And then immediately proceeded to spin around using her momentum to splash the Doctor. He spluttered and stumbled back a bit. He just stood there frozen to the spot in shock before scowling. Morgan gave him an innocent smile. What, Morgan hadn't done anything! It had just been the wind… 

Then his scowl slowly morphed into a grin. Smirking devilishly, he splashed her right back. Except that he probably had a better grasp of physics and knew exactly how to make the biggest wave. Morgan stumbled back as the cold frigid water hit her. It had been warm when it was only her toes but now it was a total shock to her system when it hit her shoulders and face not to mention her hair which was all now hanging limply soaking wet.

“Fine,” Morgan decided, “I guess this is how we’ll do it then.” then proceeded to splash him again. And again. Back and forth and before she knew it she was cackling madly, and the Doctor was too. Warm laughter filled the air as around a half-hour went by. Meanwhile, Clara actually went swimming properly. 

“Ha!” Morcan declared, pointing her finger at the Doctor in triumph, “That was my point! You were disoriented for more than 5 seconds!”

“Actually” the Doctor corrected, “that was my point, It was 4.99 seconds” Morgan scowled.

“No it wasn’t!” she paused as she collected her thoughts and what to say next, “That was clearly my point fair and square!” She shouted.

“Well maybe it would've been,” the Doctor mused, “if I hadn't done this!” he suddenly lunged forward and picked her up in one fell swoop. Morgan struggled for a second in his grip as she was pulled upwards then suddenly plunged straight into the water. Everything became quiet after hitting the water and plunging in, cushioning all of the sounds from the surface. Morgan struggled for a few seconds to regain her footing, wobbly and disoriented. By the time she burst out of the water gasping the Doctor had a smug grin plastered on his face.

“And that's two points for me,” he said grinning maniacally,” Basically, I win,” Morgan scowled, slapping the water at him one more time for good measure.

“I hate you.” Morgan declared, crossing her arms with a huff. Both she and the Doctor jumped at the sudden re-apparition of Clara.

“Woah, Woah Woah! What happened!” Clara cried seeing them both soaked and Morgan angry. “I swear I leave you two and then suddenly this happens!” she exclaimed gesturing to their current predicament, “Whatever this even is.”

“What this is, is the Doctor is an annoying, idiotic jerk-” Morgan started but was abruptly cut off by the Doctor.

“Well at least I’m an annoying idiotic jerk that won,” he paraded smugly and Morgan shot him an eye-roll but then gave a small smile which she quickly hid with a scowl. It was mostly for fun but still, wasn't that technically cheating?

Morgan sighed, “You cheated, that doesn’t count,” she crossed her arms again and gave him a long defiant stare. 

“Technically, I didn’t cheat, I used my special move,” the Doctor countered and Morgan gave a small annoyed huff before letting her arms fall back to her sides. Clara just stood there with a look of complete and utter disbelief and ‘I am so done with this’.

“You two are impossible!” she declared, shaking her head in slight amusement. “I’m going to get dried off, you two can join me when you’re done acting like children” Morgan nodded begrudgingly albeit a bit miffed at the ‘behaving like children’ comment. She would make it even with the Doctor later. Now, the shivers had started to settle in and she was the need for a nice dry towel. Morgan shuffled closer to where they had settled by the beach, grabbing the nice big towel that Clara handed her. 

Morgan wrapped herself with the large white fluffy towel and snuggled into it. The fluffy towel immediately blocked off the crisp sea breeze, shielding her from the cold and stopping her shivers. The Doctor and Clara had already settled into their places taking up the majority of the space. Morgan slipped her dress back over her head over her bathing suit, shuffled in, trying to lie down on the blanket, but there was no room to put her head.

“Doctor, move I’m trying to lie down,” Morgan demanded trying to shove him further. The Doctor unfortunately didn’t budge.

“I’m not moving, Morgan, go find your own space.” the Doctor grumbled, grounding himself even more. Morgan grumbled incoherently and furrowed her eyebrows. Fine then, if he wasn’t going to move, she wasn't budging either, but she would get to lie down. Morgan lay her head down carefully, laying right on top of the Doctor. He flinched a bit, but then stopped moving. He had decided he wasn't going to move either. It seemed that neither of them was going to back down. 

“I’m not moving Morgan.” the Doctor said although he wasn't as resolute as before. Morgan just shrugged. 

“I’m not moving either.” Morgan decided, turning to try to find a comfortable position on the Doctor’s leg. The Doctor sighed and just decided to annoy her more by laying the book he was reading on her head. “Hey!” Morgan exclaimed trying to swat the book away, “My head is not a bookrest,”

The Doctor smirked, “And my leg is not a headrest,” he observed, continuing to use Morgan’s head as a bookrest. Morgan sighed and just decided to ignore it, relaxing her muscles and looking out into the calming sea. The sound of the soft waves repeatedly hitting the shore filled Morgan’s head. Her eyelids drooped as she slowly drifted off into a light sleep.

* * *

Morgan's eyes fluttered open and she stretched her legs and arms a bit as she continued to lay down. The sun was now higher in the sky, and the Doctor was still reading the book. Morgan sat up slightly and leaned over the Doctor’s shoulder. He sighed as she pushed his hands that were holding the book too far in one direction, shoving her away to get the book to a comfortable position. 

“What’s ya reading?” Morgan asked and the Doctor craned his neck awkwardly to glance at Morgan before going back to his book.

“You wouldn’t understand,” he dismissed, taking his hand to push Morgan’s prying eyes away from his book. She was sitting up now so she could no longer really properly make it out anymore. Morgan gave a huff of annoyance.

“Fine then, space-man, what planets and time periods have you travelled to then?” Morgan asked, and although she knew a lot of them, there was definitely a lot she didn’t know. 

“Well,” the Doctor started, putting his book back in the bag and turning to face Morgan, “A couple of weeks ago, we went to Barcelona!” he exclaimed. Wait, Barcelona? Where the dogs had no noses! Morgan jumped up, ears perked up, eager to hear more.

“But this was the space-Barcelona,'' Clara interjected from the Doctor’s other side, the Doctor nodded and Morgan grinned.

“Yeah and you know in Barcelona they have dogs with no noses!” the Doctor explained and Morgan grinned, “And well Clara over here-” he was cut off by a young child walking over to them. They had a nervous expression on their face and a small bit of black tuft of hair. They stared up at Morgan with wide blue eyes, similar in colour to Morgan’s own. They blushed purple, which lit up their blue cheeks. 

Morgan kneeled down, “Hello there, what's your name?” she asked, putting on a soft smile. The child shuffled forward a bit. 

“Alex,” Alex said and Morgan smiled at that, “And uh I wondering if you’ve seen my toy!” they continued. Morgan looked to the Doctor and shook her head.

“No, sorry, I haven’t seen your toy,” she said and Alex’s face fell, “I can help you look for it though?” Morgan offered and Alex’s face lit up.

“Yeah!” they exclaimed, grasping Morgan's wrist with their small fingers. Morgan stood up slowly from the towel turning to follow Alex. “I think it went that way!” Alex pointed towards some obscure place to their left. Decidedly way too far away for their toy to be. “But, if you want to talk a bit or hear a story or-”

“I don’t think it went that way….” Morgan trailed off. Alex's face fell and Morgan leaned down to try to cheer them up. “But uh well, uh-” Alex jumped up suddenly, their face garced with a large grin all of a sudden. 

“I learnded a cool thing at school yesterday!” they piped up, “My teacher was telling us about all of the different people in the universe!” they continued, excitement bubbling up in their features, “There are Zygons and humans and meanie Sontarans and I also heard of- Ooh and theres this cool ones called timelords but they aren’t much!” the kid exclaimed. Morgan smiled, a bi confused at the kid’s strange grammar but that was to be expected. Kids never did properly really understand grammar until well later. She shot a glance at the Doctor who was shooting the kid an amused expression.

“Hmm, interesting, tell me more!” Morgan asked a bit overdramatically.

“I don’t really know much,” Alex shuffled their feet, “But there's this other story! About someone who saved us all! A hero or like a superhero,” 

“Do you like superheroes?” Morgan kneeled down to face the kid better. They nodded adamantly, doing a strange kid rendition of a superhero flying. “So who's this cool hero you seem so adamant to talk about?” Morgan asked again and Alex smiled. 

“They saveded us all Momma says! I think their name’s the Doctor!” Alex exclaimed again and Morgan froze for a second. The Doctor? As in- Morgan turned to see the Doctor with his mouth open but no words coming out. She shot the Doctor an amused smirk as he spluttered a bit at the mention of his name. He quickly shook off his surprise and had his normal face on again. 

The Doctor got up “I’m just going to go put up the devices for us to watch the tides,” he glanced back at Alex, then smirked at Morgan “Have fun babysitting,” he grinned and Morgan shot him a glare.

“Have fun crouching in a cave for like, half an hour!” Morgan sang back and the Doctor just rolled his eyes. He took the bag of devices and started off towards the cave. Morgan watched his retreating figure before turning her attention back to Alex.

“Which superhero is your favourite?” Morgan asked, and Alex shuffled pondering on it for a bit, “I don’t know, they’re all pretty cool. But I like the Doctor one the best I think,” they started, and Morgan nodded along.

“Yeah, you already mentioned him, must be pretty cool, eh?” Morgan asked. Thank god the Doctor wasn’t there to hear her say that, he would've been so smug about it. 

“He saved us from the monsters, momma says!” the kid said wide-eyed up at Morgan, a solemn expression uncharacteristic of a kid. _I’m the Doctor. And I’m the one who stops the monsters._ The line from Flatline filled her mind and Morgan couldn’t help but smile.

“Must be a really cool Doctor then,” Morgan mused then turned to look at where Alex was suddenly pointing. She turned her head towards the sea, which had receded significantly since she had last looked at it. There, floating in the water, was a small bucket-Alex’s toy presumably.

“That's my toy!” Alex exclaimed. Morgan furrowed her eyebrows and started pulling off her running shoes, planning to go and get the toy. Clara interrupted Morgan’s attempted toy rescue suddenly.

“Hey Morgan, you want anything to eat?” Clara asked and Morgan shook her head but frowned slightly at the small bag Clara was holding. 

“No thanks, I’m not hungry, you can eat it if you want, Morgan told Clara. Cara didn’t take the hint and continued. Morgan wasn’t hungry, Clara had asked and Morgan had said no, what was so hard to understand?

“It’s fine if you want Morgan, the Doctor says there's enough food in here for at least a year,” Morgan frowned at that. What? Why on earth did they need all of that food? How did that even work?

“Why did we bring so much food? Also, how does that even work?” Morgan asked and Clara shrugged.

“I don’t know, the Doctor didn’t explain, also apparently it was to ‘be prepared’” Clara finished with quotation marks while Morgan just frowned. That didn’t make any sense. Even if the Doctor did want to be prepared, why would he bring that much? “Apparently there's also a few beds in here and a chess set, and way too many other random things,” Clara added and Morgan laughed. Of course, the Doctor had brought a chess set. What had she expected?

“Of course he did,” Morgan deadpanned, “But no, still not hungry, Alex here has lost their toy,” Morgan explained and Clara frowned but then put on a wide smile for Alex. She went into teacher mode and started complimenting Alex. Morgan left them both to talk as she went towards Alex’s toy. She waded slowly into the water getting closer and closer to the toy. By the time she had reached it, the water was up to her calves. But something wasn’t right. The water had receded much more than Morgan had seen it like two seconds ago. Morgan kneeled down to inspect it then paused noticing something large from the corner of her eye. She squinted towards the horizon.

There on the horizon was a mountain, bigger than any mountain that Morgan had ever seen before. Ever. That mountain, she could've sworn it hadn’t been there before. It was large and tall and imposing and Morgan’s eyes widened as she stared at it for a few more seconds. It was getting bigger. _Interstellar._ The word flew through her mind as she turned to sprint back with the toy. The water splashed up and onto her dress but Morgan continued nonetheless. But by the time she had reached the shore again, the Doctor was finally back.

“Doctor!” came her panicked cry, “Doctor look!” she pointed with a shaky finger towards the growing mass. The Doctor spun around, eyes narrowing at the sight. He frowned at the impending wall before turning to Clara suddenly. 

“Clara, I want you to pack up and get back to the TARDIS, NOW!” the Doctor demanded Clara’s eyes widened at his tone.

“What-Doctor but why?” Clara asked and Morgan just quickly rolled up the towel handing it to her, getting her running shoes back on quickly. 

“Clara, I really do not have time for your questioning right now, just get to the TARDIS NOW!” he shouted and Clara flinched back a little, frowning. But she obeyed picking up the stuff starting to run towards the TARDIS.

“Doctor-” Morgan started but was cut off. 

“Morgan, not right now,” he spat and Morgan bristled. Really? Not right now! There were other people on this beach, innocent people! And there weren’t even that many!. Morgan wasn’t just going to leave them here to die. 

“Doctor, there’s a tsunami heading here right now and we don’t have much time,” Morgan started, but the Doctor didn’t let her finish again.

“Yes, I can see that!” the Doctor shouted again turning away from her to scan the water with his sonic. Morgan marched forward, grabbing his arm to turn him forcefully to look at her.

“Doctor, there are other people on this beach.” Morgan said, “They are innocent people and there are currently about only two families here.” she continued.

“No.” the Doctor dismissed and Morgan clenched her fists at his response.

“Doctor, you are going to let them get into the TARDIS and you are going to save them. The Doctor frowned a bit more, furrowing his eyebrows and turning on Morgan angrily.

“Fine.” he spat, turning on Morgan, “But it's your idea so you are the one in charge. Your job,” he decided, pointing his finger aggressively at Morgan. Morgan held his glare with her own for a few moments before agreeing. Fine. It was Morgan’s responsibility. _So if she messed this up, it was on her._ Morgan ran over to Alex’s family hurriedly. They didn’t have much time.

We need to evacuate right now.” I want all of you to run to that little blue box up there,” Morgan pointed to the TARDIS in the distance, “There’s a tsunami coming and trust me, that's your only chance to get out fast.” Morgan directed, but the parents looked at her with uncertainty.

“And why should we trust you?’ one of Alex’s parents piped up. Morgan opened her mouth to speak but froze. They had no reason to trust her, but she couldn’t let them die.

“Becau-”

“Because I am the Doctor,” the Doctor interrupted, everyone froze looking at him with wide-eyes. “And if you want to live, if you value your lives at all, you will listen to her and get into that blue box.” he finished. Morgan glanced at him with a thankful smile while Alex looked up wide-eyed with awe. The Doctor then stalked off to finish whatever he was doing. Morgan turned back and met Alex’s parent's eyes. They shared a look and the family started packing hurriedly.

* * *

By the time Morgan had convinced the other family to go as well, the wave was getting much, much closer. There was a faint roaring that could be heard in the distance and Morgan took that as a cue to start running off towards the TARDIS. By the time she got there, she estimated the wave would hit the beach in about 10 to 15 minutes. She turned to the Doctor.

“Is everyone inside?” Morgan asked and the Doctor paused looking in.

“I don’t know, I think so-” he was cut off suddenly by sudden wails. “

Alex’s father was running around frantically, “Alex! Where's Alex!” came his panicked cries. Morgan searched around hurriedly, turning over and looking behind everything. Morgan froze and quickly turned around to examine the beach. No- Alex couldn’t be- And there she spotted them. Small and still on the sand as the wave approached ominously. 

Morgan turned to face the Doctor, “I’m going after him,” she declared. If she timed it right, he would have just enough time to run there, get Alex and run back. She was about to go when a strong arm pulled her back suddenly.

“No Morgan, you won’t have time!” the Doctor said, “Either Alex dies or you both do, there's no saving them!” he exclaimed and Morgan frowned.

“Can you get him in the TARDIS,” she pleaded and he shook his head.

“I’ve already activated the devices, I can’t go any nearer with the TARDIS now, Morga-” the Doctor continued but Morgan cut him off.

“Then I’m going. You said it was my job to get them all in the TARDIS safe, so I’m going to do it,” she decided, resolute “And the longer you stand here arguing with me, the less of a chance I’ll have at surviving, so Doctor, let go of my arm,” Morgan ordered. The Doctor frowned at her for a moment before letting go reluctantly. Morgan sprang off, pushing off the sand towards the beach. She pulled forward harder, her breathing ragged and heavy but she kept going faster and faster. 

The impending wall loomed overhead growing so big now that Morgan could properly see where it started. She sprung off faster, trying to use as much force as she could to propel forward. She was almost there. She could see Alex now, only a few meters away. Only a few steps away- And then she was there and a wave of relief hit. She kneeled down shaking a bit as she reached out towards Alex. She stretched her arms to pick them up, about to start running again. She went to grab them but then. Then her hand went straight through them. As if they were nothing. As if they were- They flickered away. A hologram. Morgan froze. A wave of dread trickled in and Morgan’s gut clenched. Shaking, she brought her face up to meet the tsunami. It was so close now. So much closer and so so tall.

She wouldn’t be able to make it back in time. The realization hit her as the wall of water became so tall and wide that it seemed that was all that she could see. And all that she would ever see again. The last thing that she would see. Morgan crumbled, her heart pounding in her chest, tears threatening to spill. And all for nothing, Alex wasn’t even here. All for nothing on a beach! She was going to die on a beach! She- 

An arm grabbed her shocking her out of her stupor. She was propelled sideways away from the beach but not towards the TARDIS. Morgan stumbled, frowning and staring wide-eyed as the Doctor ran forward with determination and fury written on his face. He powered forward, like he always did, running with determination. Morgan attempted to take a deep breath in, resigning herself to do the same. She was not going to die like this. Morgan sped up trying to keep up as he ducked into a cave. The rushing noise from the tsunami was much louder now so that Morgan could barely hear anything else. 

Her ears were pounding now as they both ducked under a bit of cave that was jutting out going carefully over the slippery rock. There was a large opening to a larger cave coming up but something was wrong. There seemed to be some sort of silvery shiny film hanging at the entrance. The devices! It was a forcefield right? The Doctor whipped out his screwdriver, deactivating the wall long enough for them to run through. He quickly whirled around, barely missing a beat, putting the protective barrier right up again just as it had been before. And at that moment, the water came rushing in barreling against walls and swirling closer and closer- but it was stopped suddenly by the wall, stopping abruptly and churning as the tsunami continued to rage overhead. 

Morgan slowly layed down to sit on the floor, taking deep breaths in and out. She was still shaking, but after a bit of concentration, the shaking faded as well. The Doctor stood quietly in the corner, although he was definitely bristling with anger still. Morgan paused once her heartbeat got under control, turning to face the Doctor. She slipped off her backpack and walked over carefully. He had brought the bag. Ok, that was probably so they could sleep through the night or something. Clara did say that there were beds or something in there. She hesitated before speaking. 

“Doctor…” she started and flinched as the Doctor turned his livid anger onto her. She shrunk back a little. Maybe she shouldn't have talked. Maybe she should never talk again. Or just hide in a hole and then wake up and maybe this was all just a nightmare and had never happened. _This was the oncoming storm, wasn't it?_ Morgan looked into his eyes quickly then flinched away. They were old and angry and honestly, he looked ready to destroy a world. OR a person. Specifically Morgan. 

“Oh look you're still alive!’ the Doctor remarked sarcastically, “No thanks to you.” he spat continuing, “Oh look, I’m a stupid human and I think it a good idea to go running towards a tsunami,” he continued his onslaught and Morgan sank deeper. He was angry. Definitely angry. Probably angry enough to never let her travel in the TARDIS again. _Or worse._ She’d be like that one companion-Adam. Rose befriended him so the Doctor took him along for a trip. But then he messed up and the Doctor threw him out. And as much as Morgan wanted to argue on the fact that he had called her a stupid human (because it wasn’t entirely accurate) she really couldn’t.

“Is… is Alex ok?’ Morgan’s voice called out shakily, barely above a whisper. The Doctor deflated at that, his eyebrows softening a bit.

“Yes, the child is fine, they were just hiding in the TARDIS, that's all,” he explained and another wave of relief washed over her. Hey, at least it hadn’t been entirely for nothing. Alex was still safe. Alex was not dead. She took another deep breath in. 

“I-I’m sorry,” Morgan looked down, “I was stupid.”

“Yeah, you were, stupid,” he agreed and Morgan winced a little at his brute honesty, “And now we’re stuck here, in a cave!” he shouted out at the cave as if somehow the cave could hear him. Morgan sighed looking out to see the swirling dark water outside.

“Well, at least it’ll be over soon,” Morgan tried to be a little optimistic. It would only be a few hours at most. Right? Unless the barrier didn't hold and then they all died instead. Morgan brushed away the thought. It wouldn’t do them any good to think like that. 

“No.” the Doctor retorted and Morgan paused slightly. No? Ok, she knew he didn’t like being bored but still, he could at least wait a few hours! 

“Doctor, it's only a few hours, you won't have to-” she started again but he cut her off. She shot another glare in his direction. Oh yes, do continue. It wasn’t as if MORGAN WAS TRYING TO SPEAK!!!

“No!’ he repeated, turning around, “It will not be a few hours!”

Morgan paused, “What do you mean?” What did he mean? Tsunamis didn't normally last that long, it shouldn't be more than 2 hours max. Did he mean he was planning on sulking in here for more? That didn’t really make much sense. 

“Why do you think I was scanning the water?” he asked and Morgan paused again. Why had he been scanning the water? That was a good point, “There was an abnormally large amount of fresh water in it when it was the sea. And it was rising. Someones been tampering with this planet's oceans.” he finished and Morgan turned to face him again.

“What do you mean?” Morgan asked, her voice rising slightly in panic, “Doctor, what does that mean?” And it better not mean was she thought it meant.

“It means that they tampered with their planet’s water levels. This is a permanent change, not just a tsunami.” he continued. Permanent! But then-, She froze, “Well, not exactly permanent. They should be able to reverse it with their technology, but it’d take at least-”

“Doctor,” Morgan warned, “How long?” he hesitated before replying.

“By my calculations?” he started. How long would they be stuck here? A week? A month! Oh god, a whole month! Imagine being stuck a whole month with the Doctor in a cave. That would be unbearable! 

“Doctor, how long…” Morgan repeated.

The Doctor didn’t meet her eyes, “At least 6 months,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter! Feel free to comment down below. stay tuned as next chapter comes out on Friday!


	11. The first month of eternity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is out! Feel free to comment any thoughts down below! Next Chapter comes out next Sunday!

Morgan stared up at the ceiling of the cave as she lay in bed. Well, bed was a bit of a stretch. It was more an inflatable mattress with a bunch of blankets. And when Morgan said blankets she meant A LOT. Unfortunately, caves did not exactly have insolation. Go figure. It was morning. Or well, Morgan thought it was morning. It was hard to really tell these days. 

The days sort of just blended together, not quite unlike back in her old universe when they had all had to quarantine. Except now, because of the water blocking out all sunlight, it was nearly impossible to tell night from day. She took deep breaths. In. Out. In Out. No sunlight.  _ Only Darkness. Endless water.  _ No. Morgan shut that thought out as quickly as it had appeared. No. Those thoughts were reserved for nightmares.  _ But the water wasn't going to leave. It was still there. Always. Looming.  _ Morgan shut them down once again, this time for good. She needed to think of something else. 

The Days. Blending together. Hard to keep track. Morgan, however, had tried at least. She had tried to keep track of the days. Well, in fact, she was still trying. She sat up slowly and turned to look at the calendar beside her. It had been around mid-October when they had gotten stuck here. Now it was early November. Morgan stood up, trudging over to her calendar to cross off another day. Goodbye November 2. Morgan paused, looking to where her phone was strewn on her backpack. She slid down, kneeling beside it, going to check the time. 7:00 am. A reasonable time to get up.  _ It wasn’t as if going back to sleep was an option.  _

Slipping into a hoodie and some sweatpants (Morgan was too lazy to think of the British way of saying it right now). She made her bed, to the best of her ability, trying to straighten out the sheets even though there wasn't really anywhere to tuck them under. Morgan gave one last inspection of her makeshift ‘room’ before walking off towards the other cave. 

Outside was the main ‘room’. It was slightly larger than her room, although hers was barely 2 metres wide. She slid into the fold-out chair beside the Doctor, the food already ready on her plate. The table was, well it was a table… But it was one of those plastic tables that collapsed in on itself once you kicked it hard enough in a specific place. Settling into her spot, Morgan started to eat the omelette. It was a surprisingly good omelette, for the little variety of ingredients they had. Now how the technology had managed to keep an egg from going off was beyond her, but it wasn’t really worth it to question it at this point. 

“The omelette is really good,” Morgan started, breaking the silence, her mouth still full. And it really was, just the right balance of spices and egg and other little ingredients.

“Morgan, no one can understand you when you talk while you're eating,” the Doctor complained with his Scottish drawl. He seemed to have already finished, as he was now staring intently at the chessboard in front of him. 

Morgan swallowed, “Fine, but I’ll have you know it's much more efficient this way,” the Doctor just let out a sigh, barely concealing an amused smile. “What are you doing?” she asked again, “You know the chessboard won’t do anything if you stare at it like that. Trust me, I’ve tried,” The Doctor just continued intently staring at the pieces, but from closer inspection, his eyes were not staying in one place. They seemed to be following the pieces’ paths. Well, their imaginary paths. 

Morgan sighed and stood up abruptly, bringing her plate over to the bowl they were using as a makeshift sink. She spun around, taking her chair with grace (shut up, it was very graceful) and placing it down instead across from the Doctor. She fell back into the chair with a thump. Hmm, ok then hello pieces. Morgan leaned forward, glaring at the chessboard. Well, the easiest way to win, was to take the Queen, have her fly across the bard and slap the king into oblivion. Unfortunately, that wasn’t how the rules of chess worked. 

“You wanna, like actually play or are you content staring at the chessboard for the rest of eternity?” Morgan asked, albeit a bit jokingly. The Doctor sighed, looking up from his imaginary game of chess. He started rearranging the pieces and soon they had all fallen into the normal chess starting positions. He leaned down, entwining his finger and leaning his head on them, giving Morgan a cold, hard, calculating stare. Morgan gave him one right back, mirroring his actions. He made the first move, moving a pawn across the board. Morgan narrowed her eyes. What was that pawn close enough to kill? Nothing, ok, for now, she was safe. Now, what had it uncovered that could kill any of her pieces. Nothing. Ok good. Now, most importantly what could it do next that might pose harm to any of her pieces? Well, nothing, at least not in the next few moves. 

Morgan rolled out her shoulders gave a long stretch, continuing to stare at all of the pieces on the board. She needed a strategy. Well, actually she needed a diversion. Well, a diversion for a diversion for a diversion so that the Doctor would have a harder time figuring out her actual plan. Morgan set to work on this and for the next half hour, both continued back and forth. Morgan paused and froze, right as the Doctor pulled one of his pieces forward and set in down. Right in the line of- Morgan frowned and crossed her arms as a smug grin started to form on his face.

“Checkmate,” he grinned and Morgan huffed. Come on, she had almost won! Almost won! Ok, probably not, to be fair he probably had been playing easy on her but then had gotten bored of it. He then proceeded to knock down her King and then pick the piece up, just to hammer home that she had lost. Again. Most of their games that past week had gone this way. 

“I hate you,” Morgan grumbled while the Doctor just continued grinning.

“Doesn’t change the fact that I won,” he smirked, “For the seventh time in a row,” Morgan rolled her eyes and leaned forward to snatch the piece back from the Doctor. 

“Give me that,” she snapped, but the Doctor pulled the piece away just in time. Morgan sprang up from the chair and ran to the other side of the table, jumping upwards to try to get that stupid piece again. The Doctor, unfortunately, had a firm grip and even when Morgan could reach it, she couldn't pry it from his hands. God, how the hell was she going to last 6 months here without murdering him? They needed to find out a way to get out earlier. And fast.  _ But was there a way? And how would they even know if the barrier would hold for that long... _

“I’m going back to my room, where there are no annoying idiots that steal chess pieces,” Morgan declared, but then paused as her eye caught on a book strewn across the other end of the table. It was old and the cover was intricate but one thing caught her eye. It was the history of the planet that they were currently stuck on.  _ Noyade. _ Morgan turned back to the Doctor. “Hey, could I borrow this?” she asked and the Doctor nodded absentmindedly as he started inspecting something, not even bothering to glance her way. Morgan sighed and carefully took the book from the table. 

Tracing the lettering that was etched into the rough worn cover, Morgan made her way back towards her room. Flopping back down onto her bed, she cracked open the book to the first page. Morgan flipped through the first few pages and quickly got bored. Nothing. Remotely. Interesting. Not even anything useful. If it didn’t have the decency to be interesting, couldn't it at least be useful? Morgan sighed and closed the book, laying her head down on the pillow staring up at the ceiling. Why couldn’t there be an easy way out of this? Or some last-minute plan? The Doctor always figured it out in the end didn’t he?  _ Didn’t he?  _

This wasn’t a TV show anymore, Morgan. This was real life. And in real life, not everything always went to plan. And there weren’t always happy endings. And unfortunately, homework existed in real life too. And in real life, people could die.  _ Or drown.  _ Morgan huffed and went to get off the bed but then paused. The book, which she had closed earlier, was now open. Oh god, it was really annoying when that happened, when you read a specific part so much that it just never closes properly. And right as she was about to close it again, the page caught her eye. 

_Noyade._ The name of the planet. _Drowning in french._ Morgan’s gut clenched at the reminder but she pushed it away. Her eyes widened. How had she not noticed that earlier? Quickly settling back into her earlier position, Morgan pulled the book closer to her. She paused and squinted at some of the notes scribbled into the margins but then started reading. _The reason the planet was renamed in the first place to Noyade is an interesting story. An event so devastating, there were almost no survivors except for those who lived far inland._ ** _Almost no survivors, but how did they escape?,_** Morgan paused her reading for a second to squint again at the scribbled note, but then continued, _A devastating accident, an effort on the government's part to try to raise the sea levels as they were dropping, It worked a little too well._ ** _Ah yes, isn't that always the case, trying to fix something but not understanding the consequences. Now, how did this happen?_** _And then, for 6 months,_ ** _6 months…_** _almost the entire planet was submerged by a massive tsunami. Sur-_ Morgan slammed the book shut. 

She shoved the book off the bed and curled up. Memories hurled towards her.  _ Like a tsunami.  _ The water. The sand. The Doctor, inspecting it. Morgan froze in realization. That. Idiot- he had known. That was the only explanation. He had known beforehand, he had known the history of the planet- of course, he had known! ‘Oh, I had been planning to go to this beach anyway’ yeah, but he hadn’t told Morgan that it was to look into a strange tsunami! And he had known that they might be stuck here for 6 months. He had even planned for it. The bag. The cave.  _ Everything. _

Morgan stood up slowly, her fists clenched. She took a few deep breaths in. She shouldn’t jump to conclusions. She didn’t even know if this was his book, or even his handwriting yet. She needed some more concrete evidence before she could accuse him. Morgan stood taller and gave the wall a defiant glare. Grabbing one of her notebooks and a pen, she marched out of the room to where the Doctor still was doing who-knows-what. 

“Doctor, I need you to write something here, right now,” Morgan demanded, slamming the notebook open on the table beside the Doctor. The Doctor looked up in surprise and paused, before tentatively taking the pencil that Morgan was handing him. 

“Morgan-” he started but Morgan cut him off.

“Stop, no talking just do it.” Morgan snapped and then crossed her arms as she waited for him to do it. The Doctor rolled his eyes and started writing, then handed the notebook back to Morgan. Morgan took it forcefully then slammed both books open onto the table to the pages where there was writing.  **_6 months…_ ** the first book’s letters were quick and jotted, methodical. And when Morgan turned to look at her own notebook…  **_I won that game of chess._ ** She dropped them both and continued staring down towards the ground. Her vision was tunnelling. It was the same handwriting. The exact same. That stupid Timelord had-

Morgan spun around towards the Doctor. His eyes widened for a moment in surprise before she brought her arm back and then slapped him. Hard. His hand flew to his face where she had slapped him and he just stared at her. Morgan pulled out her finger accusingly.

“You knew,” Morgan started, voice low. She grit her teeth to stop herself from trying to slap him again. 

“I knew what?” the Doctor finally said once he could properly form words again, “Is this about the chess game? Honestly Mor-”

Morgan just glared and took a step closer, “No, Doctor, this is about you lying to us. This is about how you knew exactly what this planet was and what was going to happen before you came here, and you neglected to tell us anything.” Morgan yelled, clenching her fists. The Doctor stood taller, furrowing his eyebrows and looking down on Morgan. Morgan just stood her ground and stared him down as well. “You knew-” she choked up a bit as it came crashing down again. The wall of water coming, crashing forward. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. 

“So now it’s my fault?” he asked, even having the audacity to use sarcasm. Morgan scowled. Yes, it was his fault! Finally, he decided to understand.

“Yes Doctor, it is your fault! Glad you finally decided to understand,” Morgan spat, “You knew this was going to happen, you knew and you didn’t even bother warning us!”s he continued, bristling, “We almost died,” she continued, her voice dropping to almost whisper. Mrgan quickly covered up her slip up.  _ She was fine. “ _ So yes, Doctor, it is your fault. That we’re now stuck here, and we’re going to continue being stuck here for 6 months!” she screamed out that last part, going to slam the table with her fists. The Doctor just stood there, looking down condescendingly. 

“Oh I see how it is now,” he observed and Morgan was about to reply but he silenced her with a glare, “Yes, I did know, but you know why I came? Because there were survivors, and there was only one way they could have survived.” the Doctor’s voice had gone low now and as Morgan’s anger dissipated a little, she began to shrink back, “You on the other hand, had no plan and decided ‘oh yes, it's a good idea to run straight towards an incoming tsunami,’” he emphasized the last word in his Scottish accent. Morgan winced at the mention of the tsunami but continued to face him. He wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t make what he had done any less wrong either. “‘I’m just going to do whatever I want, with no thought towards the consequences because I’m a stupid little human who doesn’t think past what I’m going to eat for lunch’,” the Doctor finished, his condescending gaze still trained on Morgan. 

_ He was right-  _ He had the audacity. And- she was stupid wasn’t she? But still, he could've at least told them. Told them what they were facing. Or better yet, NOT brought them to a disaster zone! But the pit in her stomach and a knot in her throat were beginning to form. He wasn’t wrong. But he wasn’t right either. And well- the image of her makeshift room flitted through her head. And then of her own room at home. Her life, everything just came crashing down. And at that moment, something must've broken inside her. Maybe. 

“Fine,” Morgan snapped, barely masking everything that was threatening to spill through. She spun on her heels and marched off towards her room, falling into her makeshift bed and burying her head into her pillow. No matter what she thought at that moment,  _ he had called her a stupid human, that's all she was wasn't she a stup-  _ NO matter who was at fault or who Morgan blamed for their current dilemma.  _ The water was still out there. Waiting to come spilling through. There was no escape.  _ No matter what, one thing was clear. Morgan had messed up. And maybe this time, she wouldn’t get a second chance.

* * *

Morgan had eyes trained on her plate as she ate. It was well into November now. Or what would've been November?  _ What should've been November…  _ Morgan pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. She buried them. Deep. She didn’t want to have to think of that right now. The Doctor sat at the other end of the table. Both about as far away as they could yet from the other. Neither exchanged any words, both eating dinner in silence. Morgan didn’t really pay much attention to her meal, she was more focused on maximizing the efficiency of her eating speed. The faster she ate, the less time she had to spend awkwardly sitting in that room. Quickly finishing her meal, Morgan placed it in the makeshift sink and walked hurriedly towards her room. 

By the time she got there and checked the time, it was already 7:00 pm. Perfect time for a binge-watch. Also probably the perfect way to distract herself. Morgan carefully walked over to her bag, which she hadn't touched really since she got there. Pulling out her laptop slowly, she typed in her password and opened it up. Oh. Slight problem. No wifi. 

Morgan slammed the keyboard a little in anger. As if that would make a difference. Well, it seemed her plans had- wait there was a way- no. No, she was not going to- No. She refused. Morgan sighed in defeat. Then she perked up again. Maybe if she managed to steal the screwdrive-. No. That would never work. And even if she did manage it, she wouldn’t have the first clue how to work it. Still, even if she did figure that out it wasn’t the most viable option. She could always as- No she wasn't going to-

“You still sulking in there,” came the Doctor's voice from the entrance to her room. Morgan sat up straight in alarm. Why was he here. Talking to her? Didn’t he take the int that she didn’t want to talk to him? 

“What are you doing here?” Morgan bit back defensively, shimmying back a little as the Doctor came closer.

“Still sulking then, I take it,” he sighed and sat beside Morgan on the mattress. HE was holding two mugs, with something that smelled suspiciously like hot chocolate insi- No. Morgan stop. “I just wanted to apologize.” Oh. Well, it was about time. “Iw as a bit too harsh”

“No,” Morgan started, surprising even herself with her own words, “No, you were right.”  _ And that's why Morgan couldn’t accept it.  _ “I think, the world-it’s a little too complicated for it to be all one person’s fault.” she admitted in a whisper and the Doctor nodded in agreement. “I’m still mad at you though,” Morgan added offhandedly at the end. The Doctor smiled, shaking his head.

“Yes, of course,” he offered her a mug and she accepted it tentatively. It was hot to the touch and emanated warmth, very inviting after having been mostly cold all day. Morgan tried to sip a little but then quickly stopped, having burnt her tongue. Great, now she wouldn’t be able to taste anything for the next few days.

“That's hot,” Mrgan said, her tongue still out in a sorry attempt to cool it off. `

The Doctor paused, “Well, I suppose that's why they call it hot chocolate isn't it?” he smirked and Morgan rolled her eyes. “What’s that there?” he asked, gesturing to her laptop. Morgan paused, shimmying a bit closer so that the Doctor could see the screen.

“Yeah, its my laptop but there's now wifi down here, obviously so I can’t watch Netflix,” Morgan started, “Can you do any alien thingy to get it working or something?” Morgan continued, her thinly veiled knowledge passing over the Doctor’s head. The Doctor paused and pulled out his screwdriver, taking the laptop from Morgan’s hands. He soniced it a few times, and Morgan crossed her fingers that he hadn’t accidentally (or purposefully) deleted anything.

“There should be working now. Universal roaming” he exclaimed proudly, ruffling Morgan’s hair. Morgan elbowed him and grumbled.

“I’m still angry at you, you know,” Morgan clarified. She didn’t want him thinking that he could go being a complete idiotic jerk and get away with it. The Doctor just rolled his eyes and handed her back the computer. Morgan toolkit and pressed Enter, a grin spreading across her face as everything loaded. She quickly went to the Netflix page, signing in and going straight to Merlin. Magic, cool theme music and well, Merlin? Yeah, she was definitely in a Merlin mood today. Morgan paused, hesitating a bit before asking. Should she? Maybe the Doctor had stuff to do-

“Hey, do you wanna watch some of this with me?” she offered quickly before she could change her mind. The Doctor paused, a look of surprise on his face. But he quickly replied, moving the computer so that it was more in the middle, on both of their laps. 

“Depends on what we’re watching,” he said and Morgan smirked. Ok, so that was a yes then. He was definitely being forced to watch Merlin now. One of the best shows, second to only Doctor Who and Sherlock. She scrolled until she found MErlin, and clicked on the first episode. It took a few minutes to load (reasonable, since they were currently in a cave, under hundreds of meters of water on an alien planet). As the opening titles started, with the music and nostalgic imagery, Morgan couldn’t help the wave of giddiness that enveloped her. She hadn’t watched Merlin in so long (Which was a crime by the way, comparable to not watching Doctor Who or Back To the Future) 

Morgan had to contain her excited dance as the first scene started playing out. Merlin! It was Merlin. There, before all that had happened in the proceedings seasons. A goofy grin found its way onto Morgan’s face that she just couldn’t wipe off no matter how hard she tried. But then, her grin quickly fell when Uther finally came onto the screen. Oh. She had almost forgotten about the execution that had occurred at the beginning. 

“Oh, so he's an idiot,” the Doctor noted as he watched Uther carry out the execution. Morgan nodded, a slightly sick feeling in her stomach. Honestly, they were such idiots! The people hadn't done anything wrong! And killing them would only make the people with magic who hadn't already turned against him with magic hate him more! It was the recipe for a revolution and unstable kingdom. Not only was it horrible, frankly, it was stupid. 

“Yup,” Morgan said while glaring daggers at Uther through the screen. The episode passed, much the same as she had remembered it, but the nostalgia that came was comforting. And then came the line. That wonderful line. Morgan’s favourite line from all of Merlin.

“How long have you been training to be a part,” Morgan mouthed along as Merlin said it onscreen. A pause, and an amused look front he Doctor, “You can’t address me like that,” she continued, mouthing along Arthur’s lines, “Sorry, how long have you been training to be a prat,” Morgan raised her voice, directing it at the Doctor, “ _ MY Lord, _ ” She smirked and the Doctor rolled his eyes, but he was also grinning. She smirked back again, laughing a little as the Doctor shook his head. 

They finished the episode, then moved on to the next, taking small breaks in between. Soon though, it started getting late. Morgan’s eyes started drooping and she had to continuously force them open. However, drowsiness soon took over and the heaviness got heavier. Morgan started yawning wide and her eyes fluttered slightly. She wasn’t really aware of much that was happening then, except for some movement and her head resting on something soft. Then suddenly, she was enveloped in something warm- a blanket. Morgan drifted off to sleep, a smile on her face.

* * *

Everything was dark. Wherever she looked was the same empty churning expanse. No escape. Nowhere to go. The wave came closer and closer. Closer and closer. It wasn’t stopping. It would never stop. And this time, the Doctor didn’t come. Morgan looked back and somehow there was one noise that was louder than the wave. What used to be the sound of hope. Now the sound of defeat. No more hope. The little blue box slowly faded from view. And then it was gone.

The world was falling. Falling apart. There was no ground under Morgan’s feet. And then there was nothing at all. No more air, only the vicious arms of the oceans as they took her away. Everything became blurry. But maybe it already had been. She was going to die. She was cold and empty. Everything started to fade out of view. The darkness swallowed everything. Until there was nothing left at all.

* * *

Morgan woke in a cold sweat. Her head shot up and she stood, taking laboured breaths as she shook. Where was she? Was she dead Had the wat- As her breathing slowed and her heart rate decreased, the details came into view and the fog lifted. A small cave, with a bed. It was cold. But there was no wave. She was safe.  _ No she wasn't. It was still there waiti-  _ Morgan was fine. She was stuck but she was fine.  _ Morgan was drowning.  _

__ Morgan blinked a bit and carefully stood. It was dark, but there was a faint light coming from outside of her room. The Doctor must still be awake. Quietly, Morgan wrapped her blanket sound herself and tiptoed to the main room. She needed a break, something to distract herself. Going back to sleep right now was not an option. Her footsteps echoed slightly and as she came into the main room, she stopped. Oh, so that's where the light was coming from.

The Doctor sat hunched over a book- the book. The one about the planet. MOrgan froze.  _ Her fault.  _ She took a few more tentative steps forward, ending up beside the Doctor. He glanced at Morgan as she took a seat beside him.

“Couldn't sleep either?” she asked. Well, he probably wasn’t tired, cause Timelord. But Morgan ‘didn’t’ know that. He closed the book abruptly and turned to face her.

“Nah,” he dismissed, “I’m a Timelord, we don't’ need as much sleep,” he paused, “Why do you always have to sleep so much anyway? 10 hours a day? Isn’t that a bit too much?” Morgan rolled her eyes and ignored his annoyed question. 

“You do still need sleep though,” Morgan reminded him and he sighed. So she was right. Well, if they both couldn’t sleep… “Maybe we could ‘go camping’” she suggested. “Like pick a room and then bring our blankets, talk for a bit and then maybe we’ll fall asleep that way?” 

The Doctor grinned, “Underwater camping, I like the sound of that!” he exclaimed getting up from his seat and starting off towards his room. Morgan cringed but quickly hid it from the Doctor. She gulped and rushed to her own room. Taking her bag, she stuffed it with an uncountable number of blankets and her pillow, heaving it onto her back. Spinning around, Morgan ran back towards the main room but found that the Doctor wasn't there. Odd. morgan peaked into the other room and froze again.

Oh. The Doctor had chosen that room. The room that was a constant reminder of the reality. That they were trapped. Under layers of churning ocean.  _ And they would never escape.  _ And it would be a while until they got out. Morgan fought against her urge to run and instead powered forward into the room. They did always say that the best way to overcome fear was to face it. Maybe it would help. Maybe she would stop drowning.  _ Or she would never stop.  _

__ “So, campaign underwater,” Mor started, “What next time camping?” she spat it a bit bitterly. The doctor ignored that and just lay down himself gazing out into the abyss. The endless abyss. That would never ever end. Oh great, now Morgan was getting all philosophical. It was an accurate description, ok! Laying down her blankets beside his, she took a tentative step towards her new makeshift bed. Morgan slowly lowered herself onto it, shaking slightly at a crackle from the shield. What if it didn't hold? And then all of the water came rushing in. 

She couldn’t do it. Morgan couldn’t do it. It was too much, being here right in front of her. Too much. Morgan started hyperventilating and the brain-numbing fear took over. She stumbled forward, falling down and hugging her knees. Too much. She curled up into a ball. 

“Doctor,” Morgan started. He sat up and turned to look at her as she started shaking violently. “I can’t sleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed that! Feel free to comment any thoughts down below! Next chapter comes out next Sunday!


	12. How to Force the Doctor to Watch Back to the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or alternatively: if back to the future was set in a cave, but with no time machine available, so basically not back to the future... But there are attack eyebrows!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally finished the chapter! Next chapter comes out Sunday! Feel free to comment any thoughts down below!

There was a long pause of silence. Morgan could almost hear the seconds going by- like the ticking of an imaginary clock. Tick Tock. tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Maybe the ghost clock was secretly haunting them all. Ot maybe Morgan was going insane.  _ Or she was trying to distract herself.  _

“Well, isn’t that why we decided to go underwater camping in the first place?” the Doctor’s voice broke Morgan out of her thoughts suddenly. Underwater. Because that's where they were. Morgan froze at the mention again but nodded.

“Yeah,” Morgan started, her voice barely above a whisper, “But that's not what I meant, Doctor,” Morgan snapped back, trying to cover up her slip up. She lifted her chin a bit and avoided looking at the water. The wall. Look there. The Wonderful beautiful wall. That's all there was. Just a wall. Just a- The Doctor sighed.

“Then what do you mean?” the Doctor asked, slightly exasperated. Morgan paused for a few moments. What did she mean? How could she even explain this? Maybe she should just leave it. Close her eyes and pretend that everything was fine. Everything was fine. Everything was fine. Fine. 

“I’m fine,” Morgan said aloud but then paused at the Doctor’s raised eyebrow, “No sorry, I’m not fine. I mean I can’t close my eyes without seeing it again.” Morgan finally got out, barely above a whisper. The Doctor froze. He stayed silent for a few minutes so that Morgan could hear the loud pounding of her heart. 

“Oh,” he swallowed and tension in the air made Morgan shiver. Although that might have also been because of the sound of the water. She shuffled uncomfortably.  _ It was still there.  _ She shouldn’t have said anything. It was fine- Morgan was fine.  _ That was a lie.  _ She could deal with it herself. All she had to do was close her eyes and- Morgan let them fall shut for a few moments. The spaces between the seconds grew longer. And all she could hear was her shallow breaths and the water above. Morgan quickly forced them open again.  _ Memories are so much worse in the dark.  _

“But it's fine,” Morgan said, “It’s fine.” she repeated. Maybe if she repeated it enough she could hammer that stupid message into her dumb brain. The Doctor hesitated for a moment before placing a hand on her shoulder. It was awkward, but it was oddly comforting too. The Doctor seemed to mull over his own thoughts for a while before he spoke. The silence was deafening. Too much silence. Too much time to think. Too much time to remember. 

“The time locked devices will hold up,” the Doctor started and Morgan cut him off.

“I know, I know,” she paused, “But no matter how much I tell myself that nothing bad is going to happen, it doesn’t change anything,” she whispered, shaking a bit. Morgan swallowed and took another deep breath in. It was fine, nothing was going to happen.  _ But what if it did? It happened before. There was a tsunami. Almost died. It could easily happen again, why couldn’t it?  _ Morgan cringed at her own thoughts, curling up closer into herself. The shadows and the water and cave. All closing in on her. All collapsing. Nowhere to go. 

She shivered, All alone. She had almost died all alone. Without having done anything of real significance in the world. Alone and useless. Morgan leaned towards the Doctor. She lay her head a bit tentatively on his shoulder. A reminder that she wasn’t here alone. An anchor to the real world.

Something crashed- water, a rock? Morgan couldn't tell where it was or what it was. But it was the last straw. She jumped and shivered again. Why? Again. Again. Again. Again. Why couldn’t it just leave her alone? And why couldn’t she just stop thinking about it? Why couldn’t her idiot self just do something useful for once? Tears almost threatened to spill. Almost. She wouldn’t let them. Who gave them permission to show up? It certainly hadn’t been Morgan. Morgan was glad she couldn’t see whatever horribly distorted look she had on her face at that moment. She probably looked well- like something horrible. Wait. Face- He couldn’t see her like this. No. She wouldn't allow that. 

Morgan leapt forward burying her face into the Doctor's shoulder. The Doctor jumped and bristled slightly at the unexpected occurrence. He tried to turn his head to face her better but Morgan made sure he couldn’t.  _ Why don’t you like hugs? Never trust a hug. It's just a way to hide your face. _

“I don’t do hugs-” the Doctor started but Morgan cut him off.

“I know, I know, just a way to hide your face,” Morgan whispered into the silence of the cave. Sometimes, that's exactly what a person needed to do. Hide their face. From the shadows. From the water.  _ From the people.  _

“How do-” the Doctor continued, suspicion lacing his tone. She froze. A statue. She had slipped up. Morgan’s breath shortened. She had slipped up. What could she do? She didn’t have time for this right now-

“Yeah, I know. My dad says the same thing,” Morgan lied. A sigh of relief. The Doctor relaxed slightly. Morgan was about to pull away again when another loud sound made her freeze. She shivered and tried to stop it again but couldn’t. If only the sounds and the water would listen and leave her alone. Morgan pulled her hands away, about to go back to where she had been attempting to sleep. But then there was a hand on her shoulder. Morgan turned around to face the Doctor again. He gestured for her to come closer, well slightly closer. Morgan obliged, scooting to sit beside the Doctor. 

She pulled her knees closer hugging them to her stomach. The water wouldn’t go away. Maybe if she yelled at it enough it would. Would that work? The sounds came back making Morgan shiver a little again. Go away. Stupid sounds and stupid water stupid everything that wouldn’t just leave her alone! There was a shuffling sound, and Morgan turned to see the Doctor walking over to where she had left her blankets by her makeshift sleeping area. He scooped them up and sat back beside Morgan again, throwing the blanket over her shoulder and putting her pillow on his shoulder letting her rest her head there. There was a beat of silence as Morgan settled in.

“So you’re scared of the tsunami,” the Doctor began matter of factly. What was that supposed to mean? Was he making fun of her- Morgan was about to give an indignant remark to that but was cut off by the Doctor. “Ah but you see, the tsunami may have a lot of things, but you have the upper advantage!”

Morgan raised a skeptical eyebrow and craned her neck to look at the Doctor. “I do?” Morgan paused, as her eyes caught on a bit of purple light filtering through the water dancing along her hand.

“Well yes,” he continued as if it were obvious, “you have me,” he grinned smugly and Morgan rolled her eyes. “And trust me, no storms have anything on me,” his eyes darkened slightly at that remark and Morgan’s stomach tightened too. She quickly brushed away the uneasy feeling.

“I’m willing to bet on the tsunami,” Morgan joked, a small smile forming on her face. For a moment Morgan could almost keep up the pretense. That they were somewhere else. Just joking around. But then the illusion was shattered. The Doctor gave a small fond smile as well but it quickly turned to a smug grin.

“Nah, trust me, tsunamis are stupid,” the Doctor started, “See, I tell them to shut up and they don’t understand it,” Morgan smiled at that, “See, stupid!” he smirked again. Tsunamis were stupid. He was right, they did not listen to her orders and leave her alone. Morgan gave a large yawn, her eyelids starting to grow heavy. But then another rush of water brought her out of it yet again. It was waiting there on top. Hundreds of meters above them. Would the weight push down, collapsing the ceiling? She shivered, clinging onto the blanket and the Doctor’s arm to ground herself. No. Caves didn’t suddenly collapse all of a sudden. Right? Morgan quickly attempted to right herself to gain back a little dignity.  _ But it was still there. Waiting. Waiting for her to let her guard down.  _ “And you know what?” the Doctor continued.

“What? You’re not gonna say something stup-” Morgan started but was cut off by the Doctor shushing her.

“If anything does happen and you are asleep,” he started and Morgan’s stomach knotted again at that. Did he really have to bring that u- “I’ll make sure to let you know.” Morgan relaxed slightly at that. Ok, yeah logically that made sense, she didn’t have to be on guard at all times if the Doctor was instead. Morgan’s eyelids started to grow heavier again, and she leaned into the pillow on the Doctor's shoulder, muffling the sound of waves or anything really. “And I promise…” the Doctor started, whispering, “That nothing will ever happen to you on my watch,” his voice got low-so low that Morgan barely heard it. Barely. But it was enough.

Her thoughts started muddling. A thick haze like fog drifting. Although she still flinched a bit each time there was a noise. But it was easier this time, the sound didn’t produce the same mind-numbing wariness as before. She could relax. Her mind barely registered the faint pressure at her temples-  _ warm. _ Before she drifted off to sleep. 

* * *

Everything was warm. A strange warmth, alien warmth. Morgan leaned into the warmth. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she squinted slightly at the overabundance of light. Why was there light? Light… Light meant morning right. Morgan sat up warily and paused. She blinked the grogginess away and stretched wide, yawning loudly. It was a cave. She had been in a cave before right? When she had fallen asleep? Wait! Morgan had fallen asleep? She jumped up knocking down the apparent chair she had been sleeping on. Table. Breakfast? 

She turned to face the figure sitting calmly in the chair beside her, reading a book of sorts. Oh not figure. The Doctor. Morgan squinted and carefully picked back up the chair that she had accidentally knocked down. 

“What the hell?” Morgan blurted, rubbing her eyes and sitting back down on her chair. She squinted again. Why was everything so blurry? She went to rub her eyes again. Oh. “Where are my glasses?” The Doctor paused, looking up from his reading.

“Ah, hello to you too,” he remarked sarcastically. Morgan sighed. It was a valid question! Where were her glasses? Also why was she in their makeshift kitchen? She didn’t remember falling asleep here! Well, to be honest, she didn't actually properly remember falling asleep in the first palace. “You should probably go get ready or whatever it is you humans do,” the Doctor continued waving his hands to shoo her away, “Go cross out another day or something,” he finished and Morgan frowned. She was about to leave before she finally caught the words he had said. 

“What do you mean? Cross out days,” Morgan started a bit defensively. She crossed her arms a bit and frowned. How did he know? And why was he saying it like that? 

“I’ve seen the little calendar you have in your room Morgan. Honestly, what is it with you humans and your obsession with time?” he asked incredulously. Morgan raised an eyebrow.

“You’re one to talk,” she pointed out, snorting at his absurd statement. Really? He was calling her obsessed with time? Hypocrite much? The Doctor gave a tired sigh and narrowed his eyes, indicating for Morgan to get lost. Ok then. Tired sigh… Honestly? It was a bit too tired. Suspiciously tired. Like how someone would sound if they were pretending- Morgan shook her head, dismissing the thought as she swung into her room. 

It was the same as she had left it last night, blankets strewn about messily everything in disorder. She winced. Not exactly ideal. Morgan strode over to her calendar, running her fingers along the days that had already passed. November had been a drag, each day blending into the next. And yet there were still so many months left. To wait. So much more time that Morgan had not wanted or asked for. Sighing, Morgan went to cross off yesterday. But then froze. Yesterday had been the 29th of November which meant today was… Morgan stared at the little inscription she had written on the calendar.  _ My Birthday.  _ Today was the 30th of November. Morgan’s birthday. Morgan took a sharp intake of breath. 

She was 15. And everything started to actually, properly dawn on her. How long six months actually was. Here she had been complaining but not really properly grasping the amount of time that it really, truly, was. Morgan paused as she stared down her bag of clothes. Should she maybe wear something special today? It was her birthday after all? Nah, it was her birthday and she was currently living in a crappy cave. Comfort should be the priority. Morgan quickly slipped on a hoodie and sweatpants, as usual, brushing her hair out of her face into some semblance of neatness.

Morgan then finally found her glasses, perched neatly on top of her bag. Taking them carefully, as to not break them (it would not be good if she broke her glasses while living in a cave isolated.) She slowly made her way to the main cave, running her fingers along the edges. At first glance, one would think it was just pure, boring, gray and dull all along. But once one looked closer there was really much more. Tiny little cracks, little dark green vines too, snaking along the crevasses. Morgan sighed. Really, what it showed was that she had been in that cave staring at those stupid walls for too damn long! 

Morgan finally entered the main kitchen cave again. Only to find the Doctor- Wait. What was the Doctor doing? She knew he was an idiot but- Morgan paused again, watching as the Doctor attempted to heat something up on their makeshift stove, pausing every few seconds to attempt to scan it or who knows what with his screwdriver. Morgan walked forward carefully, standing on her toe to try to see what on earth the Doctor was doing.

“Doctor, what on earth are you trying to do?” she finally asked, poking him in the shoulder. The Doctor jumped, almost dropping everything and making a complete mess. Keyword there: almost. Honestly, if Morgan had a dollar for the amount of times that the Doctor had  _ almost _ made a complete disaster… well, she’d probably be a googolplexianaire by now (and yes, that was a thing, shut up, your opinion was not asked for). 

“Morgan, what are you doing here,” the Doctor yelled in surprise. Tensing up, “I thought I sent you to your room to get ready?” he said in an overly defensive tone, pointing his finger at her accusingly. Morgan rolled her eyes and came closer to where the Doctor was standing by the makeshift stove.

“Yeah, you see, there is this incredible phenomenon called, I went and got ready already,” Morgan deadpanned, “What did you think I’d just stay in my room staring at the wall for 6 hours?” she continued. The look the Doctor was giving her told her everything she needed to know. Really? Did he actually think-

“Well that's what you’ve been doing for the past month,” the Doctor pointed out and Morgan winced a bit at that before quickly covering it up with a scowl.

Morgan crossed her arms “Yeah, but now I’m not,” she leaned forward to try to see what the hell he thought he was doing, again. “What in the actual universe are you trying to accomplish right now because I can tell you for a fact that staring at it and sonicing it is probably not going to accomplish much.” Morgan pointed out. The Doctor just gave an annoyed huff.

“I’m making hot chocolate,” he explained. Morgan raised an eyebrow at the milk and pieces of chocolate he was heating up. She gave a cautious sniff of it.

“You sure that's how you make hot chocolate?” she asked skeptically. The Doctor rolled his eyes. 

“Yes, Morgan, I made it yesterday,” the Doctor grumbled, running his hands through his hair in slight frustration. Morgan paused. His hair was now almost at series 10 length, since he couldn’t exactly cut it properly. Or he was too lazy. Morgan suspected that it was the second one. 

“Ok, yeah you did make it yesterday,” Morgan agreed, “But you do have a tendency to delete things,” Morgan argued again. She was still a tiny bit annoyed that he had deleted her name from his memory the first few times he’d met her. 

“I apologized for that!” the Doctor cried, “I didn’t mean to delete your name, I just tend to do that whenever I meet random boring humans,” the Doctor finished exasperated. Boring humans? Excuse her-

“You calling me a boring human?” Morgan cried in offence. The Doctor sighed a bit at that.

“No, Morgan, you’re much too annoying to be boring,” he finished. Morgan went to slap his arm at that comment but he moved out of the way just in time. Stupid timelords. 

She took a deep breath, “Fine. Why are you making hot chocolate anyway?” she asked. The Doctor frowned again furrowing his eyebrows. 

“Because! Why do you always have to ask so many questions? The Doctor asked accusingly. Because what was the fun without asking questions? Seriously, what was his problem? She just wanted to get information efficiently and here he was trying to skirt around it. 

“Because I try my hardest to annoy you, it’s my goal in life,” Morgan deadpanned and the Doctor rolled his eyes bringing his attention back to the pan, “Also I’m curious,” Morgan admitted with a shrug. The Doctor ignored her comments and continued staring intently at the pan. Morgan sighed, huffing as she stomped back over to the table. There were a few books scattered about. Morgan squinted inspecting them all. A few on the Flora and Fauna, and everything really, about the planet so Morgan picked one up to start to skim through it. 

Skimming through the index, Morgan found the section on dangerous creatures and skipped straight to that section of the book (with the Doctor, it was inevitable that they would probably end up bumping into something dangerous deadly, world ending, universe ending or all of the above). It was always good to be prepared. Morgan started from the first creature and settled down to read.

_ Silent swallower.  _ Well, it certainly seemed to (probably) be descriptive. Not very creative though.  _ The silent swallower is a part of the Noyade genus of…  _ Morgan skipped the more useless specific details. She didn’t need to know the official scientific name. What did it expect her to do? Scream its exact genus while it was trying to eat her? Not likely that that would get much accomplished except for wasting air.  _ It is widely considered by the general populous to be one of the most dangerous carnivorous plants out there. But, it is in fact not a plant at all. It isn’t an animal either, it is part of the group called vegetanima a mix of the french words,  _ Jesus what was with this planet’s obsession with naming things after french words. Had the french settled here or something? Honestly, Morgan was probably lucky she understood French at all with the unnecessary abundance of french in this planet’s books. 

Morgan skimmed through the unnecessary details about its name and continued.  _ The silent swallower is composed of what looks to be normal vines. They will be lying around, even fairly far away from the plant. If you see any strange, dark green vines, be warned DO NOT APPROACH.  _ Duly noted. If Morgan saw any spooky carnivorous vines, she would not decide to approach them and be eaten.  _ The silent swallower will start to wrap its arms (vines) around its victim, in a grip that is almost inescapable. If you find yourself being wrapped by it, it is almost certainly too late.  _ Well, wasn't that fun. Yay, we’re going to give you this information! But if it does apply to you, you’re basically dead. Sorry. 

She turned the page. Why was she even reading this again? Boredom. Fair enough. Morgan continued.  _ Fortunately, it does have one natural predator. A cave bug that emits a high pitch noise. It waits for the silent swallower to start to wrap it up and then, once swallowed, starts to devour the plant from the inside using a special enzyme.  _ Blah. blah, blah. Morgan sighed swimming through the exact details.  _ However, the swallower does have a defence mechanism for this. If its receptors pick up any high pitch noises it will immediately release anything it is holding. However, at this point, it will have already released its poison into its victim, so it will be almost impossible to survive this if you try to use this method to escape.  _ Keyword there: almost impossible. There was a very large difference between almost impossible and impossible. Morgan sighed, slamming the book shut. Boring. Slightly useful, but still a bit boring. 

“Doctor,” Morgan called to the Doctor, who had finished the hot chocolate by now, “You never did explain why you were making hot chocolate in the morning,” The Doctor paused while balancing both mugs.

He grinned, “Don’t you know?” he exclaimed, Morgan raised an eyebrow. Did she know what? “Honestly, I’d have thought you would have figured this out by now. It's your birthday!” he declared placing her mug carefully in front of her. Morgan froze. Oh. right.

“Oh,” she started, “I-didn’t even tell you when my birthday was…” she trailed off as the Doctor took a seat beside her. 

“I told you already, you’d written it on your calendar,” the Doctor explained, “I couldn’t really make a cake so I decided to make this instead,” he grinned again. Oh.. well, yeah if he had made a cake he probably would've burnt down the cave. And yes. The underwater cave made of rock. Knowing the Doctor, he would have figured out a way to somehow burn it down. It was less unlikely than you would think.

“Yeah, probably would have caused an explosion if you had made a cake,” Morgan joked and then Doctor huffed in mock offence, “But thank you,” Morgan gave another small smile. 

“Yeah, exciting times, you know you’re eight now, might be able to properly reach a shelf in some time,” he added offhandedly. Morgan elbowed him lightly.

“Doctor! I told you already! Not eight, I’m 15!” she exclaimed. The Doctor just sat there, sipping his hot chocolate, a smug grin plastered all over his face. Morgan scowled. “Fine, but since it's my birthday, I’m in charge today,” Morgan decided.

The Doctor scoffed, “Oh of course you are,” Morgan narrowed her eyes at that comment. Idiot. She gave another small smile. 

“And since I’m in charge, I decree that we need to watch Back to the Future,” Morgan declared. A warmth bubbled up inside of her. She hadn’t watched Back to the Future in so long. Morgan hopped over to where she had left her laptop bringing it over to the table.  _ Dun dun dun dun dun… gonna go BACK IN TIME.  _ She almost squealed in giddiness as the Doctor set down her laptop in front of them. In fact, she did squeal internally.  _ EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!  _ Morgan made sure to keep her outwards expression to a minimum A girl would do. Signing into Netflix again, Morgan quickly typed in those magical words.  _ Back to the Future.  _

__ It started up, all the clocks ticking. Morgan sucked in a breath in excitement. There it was. She gave a small smile as Marty entered the scene, squeezing the Doctor’s hand a little in excitement. A few minutes in though, as Marty accidentally made a huge mess the Doctor decided to comment. Because of course, he did. 

“That not how it would work…” he started, “He wouldn’t have been able to run it up that and frankly if its pitch was high enough to make that mess then surely his eardr-” Morgan cut him off with a frown.

“Doctor, stop analyzing the movie and just watch it.” Morgan said, poking the Doctor angrily in the chest. The Doctor swatted her hand away as he continued. 

He scoffed “You do it every single time we watch anything, how come I’m not allowed to now?” he pointed out. Well- because. Arghh why did the Doctor have to- Morgan shot him a glare.

“Shut up and let me be a hypocrite in peace,” she retorted, unpausing the movie. The Doctor gave an exasperated sigh but complied. 

Throughout the entirety of the movie though, the Doctor did continue making a few remarks. Mostly about how they had gotten the time travel all wrong. (It was a movie Doctor, you’re supposed to suspend your disbelief) But still, despite all of that, as the nostalgia-filled her up, Morgan still managed to enjoy it. In an underwater cave on a different planet. Everything was different but there were still little things. Little things that were the same. Little reminders that there might still be a tiny bit of hope left. And as Morgan fell asleep that night, for the first time in over a month. She wasn’t afraid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed that! Again, next chapter comes out Sunday! Feel free to leave any thoughts in the comments below!


	13. Don't Wander Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh I'm so sorry about not updating in a while. I've been so busy lately, plus writer's block and procrastinating. Hopefully, the schedule will return to normal now. Anyways, enjoy the chapter! Feel free to comment anything down below and stay tuned for next Sunday!

Walls were strangely interesting things. They seem uniform and boring from afar but when one actually, really looked closer, there was so much more. Crevasses, tiny cracks, plants crawling their way inside. Tiny little worlds of their own if you just took the time to look. And right now, Morgan had a lot of time on her hands. But walls had nothing on this. Morgan ran her finger almost against it, marvelling at the transparency of it. It was almost not there as if the water just suddenly stopped. A forcefield, small specks of light and flashes. The only thing between her and the storm above. 

Morgan shivered a bit at that thought but then pushed it back to the furthest reaches of her mind. No. She needed to focus. She had never really seen anything like this forcefield when she had watched Doctor Who. Which was odd, but not impossible.  _ She still was keeping that a secret wasn’t she? _ Anyway. She had something to do. A plan. And it might just work. Morgan let her fingers hover over the crackling blue veil, almost touching it. He said it was time-locked right? A timelock technology that also created a sort of forcefield… Maybe they could try to deactivate the timelock part? Would that work? Well, the Doctor had probably already tried but there was no harm in trying again. 

“DOCTOR!” Morgan yelled over her shoulder towards where the Doctor was probably situated. No reply. Honestly, did she have to yell again? “DOCTOR!” A grunt or grumble-something- Honestly why would he never ever listen to her. Morgan took a deep breath in “DOCTOR! GET your as-” she stopped abruptly as the Doctor finally came in. He was frowning, and scanning the walls with his screwdriver (honestly, sometimes it seemed that he was just scanning things randomly to impress people) (Oh wait that was what he was doing a lot of the time)(Yeah, Morgan could see through that facade, Doctor)

The Doctor paused in his scanning, “Morgan, you were calling?” he looked up finally to face her. Morgan gave an exasperated sigh.

“Yeah, like a million times!” Morgan yelled, balling up her fists in frustration, “Could you not have at least replied, ‘oh yes Morgan, I heard you but am annoying so will take a bit of time to come?” Morgan asked incredulously. 

“Morgan, I was busy, why are you always complaining so much haven’t you have better things to do?” the Doctor complained. Morgan snorted a little at the irony and cleared her throat. 

“Actually, no, I don’t have anything better to do,” Morgan started, “Because we’re stuck in a BLOODY CAVE!” Morgan shouted, pulling at her hair aggressively. Oh wow, it seemed the anglicisms had started rubbing off on her. Had she ever actually said ‘bloody’ before? Or maybe all of those years of obsessing over Doctor Who had paid off.  _ Not yet. She was going to have to tell him eventually, wasn’t she? Or he would find out on his own.  _

“Ok then what do you supposed we do hmm?” the Doctor said, “You’re welcome to go jumping into that tsunami if you want,” the Doctor offered sarcastically. Morgan huffed at that comment biting her lip to prevent her snapping back at him, digging her heels into the ground.

“Actually, I did have a few ideas,” Morgan snapped back, stepping back so that the Doctor could properly inspect the devices, “I was thinking, that maybe we could try separating the timelock part of the devices and then turning that part off-”

“Don’t you think I’d have already done that?” the Doctor cried out, a hint of annoyance lacing his words. Morgan rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, but then, I also thought, sometimes the simplest solutions are overlooked by the smartest of people,” she concluded while the Doctor just raised an unimpressed eyebrow. Morgan sighed, crossing her arms. Couldn't he at least give it a chance?

“That won’t work. Whoever made this changed a time lock device to double as a forcefield,” a pause, “You can’t deactivate the original directive, it's wired into the heart of it, that would just stop the whole thing from working,” the Doctor explained. But still, couldn’t they at least try? Why wouldn’t he at least give it a chance? 

“Can’t you at least try?” Morgan cried, dangerously close to begging. She fixed her expression so she wouldn't look as desperate, scowling a little.  _ She couldn’t take another stupid 2 and a half months of this.  _

__ “Morgan, it won't work, and even if it did, it would turn off the other parts too,” he said, “You can’t just go waving around a screwdriver and expect everything to be fixed.” Morgan snorted at that. Seriously? Did he just- Well, it seemed he had never watched Doctor Who before.  _ Probably because he hadn't. And he didn’t even know it existed anyway…  _

“Says the one who is always waving around his screwdriver, expecting everything to be fixed,” Morgan retorted and the Doctor just sighed. He just stormed away while Morgan crossed her arms. “Doctor, where are you going?” Morgan called out, standing on her toes to project her voice.

“I’m going back to what I was doing before I was rudely interrupted!” he shouted back. Morgan frowned, crossing her arms more. God, he could be such a prick sometimes (there they were, those anglicisms coming back again). Morgan signed, leaning against the wall. She relaxed all of her muscles leaning into the cave. God if that stupid wall collapsed right then- Thankfully, the cave wall did not collapse. Morgan traced her finger along the cracks and paused for a second. 

There were little, small vines, going along all of the cracks. Morgan reached out tentatively to touch one. Admittedly, this was not one of Morgan’s brighter ideas. Oh well. Morgan flinched back right after having touched the slightly prickly vine. Ok, no that was a bit weird. How long even was this vine? (Yes, Morgan had stooped to the level where following random vines was now interesting) Morgan brought her finger up to her face to inspect it. No blood, fine except for the original slight pain and tingle. 

Morgan followed the vine carefully, heading deeper into the cave, one of the areas they hadn’t yet explored. Definitely not one of her brighter ideas. Morgan was being an idiot, but at this point, there really wasn’t much else to do. She’d already gone as far as finishing all of her homework for the weekend, and then some. And binge-watching Merlin. Not to mention having watched Back to the Future way too many times. (Which the Doctor apparently hated, by the way) (Illegal, yes, she knew) 

Finally, Morgan ended up in a large cave, which seemed to also be somewhat connected to the kitchen from the abundance of light that she could see. Carefully stepping forward, she kneeled down. The vine seemed to lead here. To this cave. Where there was a giant pit in the back of it. Ok, that was… Not normal? Morgan took a few tentative steps forward. Ok, so this was the point in the horror movie where the character did something stupid and got killed. Morgan was decidedly not going to become the dead horror movie character. Life advice from Morgan: never aspire to be the dead horror movie character and walk into the unknown places and be dumb. 

Backing away slowly, Morgan fumbled towards where the kitchen probably was, grasping the walls for support as she tripped. Tripped? Why was she trippin- Morgan froze. One of the vines. There curled around her ankle. Then another and another. What the he- Oh.  _ Oh.  _ Morgan froze momentarily, then started sprinting toward the kitchen. But she was pulled back with unexpected force by the vines as they grew in number and strength. 

“DOCTOR!” Morgan called. Nothing, a grumble or two. Why- Why did he choose now of all times to ignore her? Morgan tried calling again, inhaling a large breath, “DOCTOR!” she started breathing heavily.  _ Oh god. She was going to die again, wasn’t she?  _ Stupid bored Morgan getting herself into trouble and wandering off. Had she learnt nothing from watching Doctor Who? God Damnit she was such an idiot! “Doctor!” this time her scream was shrill and loud. And desperate. “DOCTOR!” she screamed again, struggling to hang on to the rock. Morgan stumbled backwards as another few vines came, almost falling. Somehow though, she managed to grasp onto the wall again, although she cut herself in the process. Morgan flinched at the stinging pain in her fingers. That was ok. Better stinging pain in fingers than being dead. 

At this point, she was hyperventilating. Vision blurry, Morgan desperately continued holding onto the wall as she got progressively closer and closer to the pit. Morgan struggled to stay somewhat upright as her legs were now out of commission. Great, now she was gonna die looking like sushi. She glanced back, her stomach churning uncomfortably. Barely a meter away. Morgan took one last deep breath in.

“DOCTOR!” Morgan cried shrilly again. She coughed a bit her voice getting hoarse and dry for some reason. Trying to put as much of her panic and loudness into it as possible. The Doctor turned a corner, already running towards her. His eyes widened as he finally saw her predicament (Thanks doc, perfect timing). Stumbling forward running faster, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Honestly, at that point, Morgan almost yelled (swore) at him.  _ What was he gonna do, assemble a cabinet at the stupid everything-eating plant-thing?  _

Morgan took a shaky breath in to calm herself. She needed to stop panicking. Stop panicking and think of a plan. What did she remember from that book she had read a while back? Not much, except death. Fun. Wait no. There had been something, something about a predator or something. God, why couldn’t Morgan ever be useful for once and actually remember? Why the one time she needed to remember something she couldn’t? Why was she so useless? The sonic was buzzing again. God, why couldn’t the Doctor just- Oh- sound!

“Doctor! Sound!” Morgan called right before she was plunged into darkness. Everything was constricting inwards towards her. Little pricks everywhere reminding her the vines were still coming. Well, they were everywhere now. All around her. Suffocating darkness. Wet and humid.  _ The last things she would ever see.  _ So, basically, Morgan had failed in life. Prime Minister or President? Nope. Made any scientific discoveries? Nope. Affected the Doctor Who timeline in a positive way even a little bit? Also nope. 

But, there was still a bit of hope right? She shouldn’t completely give up just yet. Morgan heaved and wheezed as she tried to take another shaky breath in. She stumbled, struggling against the confines, but then stumbling into some…. She gulped. Wet Slimy, kinda burned… Morgan definitely did not want to think about that. Lifting her feet up tentatively, she winced. Something hurt, a leg or an arm, she couldn’t exactly tell the difference anymore. Sharp bursts of pain, almost coming from everywhere at once. A faint ringing and pounding in her ears- wait. 

The air was turning more and more moist (god that sounded weird) and well suffocating. Her vision grew blurry, but Morgan still continued struggling to keep her eyes open. But they were so heavy, heavy… Everything was numb, numb or in pain and- Why was everything throbbing so much? At that point, Morgan had stopped really struggling against the thick leafy walls. She physically couldn’t. Her arms were almost limp and sad. Only in a matter of well, like one minute or something. Morgan couldn't exactly tell. 

All the sounds became muffled. Slow as a snail’s pace. Darkness. And then a flash of blinding light. That stayed. Morgan held onto consciousness for a bit longer, grasping onto reality. She was lifted- presumably by the Doctor. Morgan forced her eyes open to try to see what was happening. Everything was still blurry, and getting blurrier. But she could still make some things out. The Doctor, for one. Morgan wheezed trying to breathe again, there was a pressure though, somewhere, on her lungs. Maybe a broken rib? She couldn't exactly think straight. 

The Doctor was moving-carrying her somewhere. Holding her bridal-style or whatever it was called- no wait. It was more how one would carry a baby, making sure to support her head so that it didn't loll. (And yes, Morgan had learnt that from her babysitting courses) (no, she had never actually babysat anyone because she was too afraid that she would accidentally kill the child. Or purposefully kill them) Everything disappeared, turned dark-her eyes had fallen closed. Why-Why. Too- She was being put down now, somewhere-soft and- Fog clouded her mind. Everything was heavy-too heavy. Too much. 

* * *

Light. Something had- Morgan blinked the light away. There was a faint throb-well, everywhere. What the hell… She forced her eyes open, sitting up carefully. She was in a cave (wow, so insightful, Morgan, do please tell more) (shut up) It was... Well, it was one of the caves, probably her own. They all did kind of look the same. The gray walls tended to blend together. The Doctor-he was there close, on a chair. He was tired- more so than usual, and had a more anxious energy about him. 

“Doctor?” Morgan started, sitting up more but then wincing slightly. The Doctor’s eyes widened when he heard her speak. He jumped up and ran over- well, more like speed-walked.

“Morgan-you shouldn’t be moving too much, you’re going to break something,” the Doctor started, “Please don’t ruin all of my hard work,” he added in quickly towards the end. Morgan paused. There were a bunch of tubes (IV?) coming out of her. (How on earth the Doctor had gotten them, well that was a different story) 

“What happened?” Morgan asked in a slight daze. Everything had started to finally come into focus but it was still blurry. “Glasses,” Morgan said and the Doctor motioned to the glasses beside her. Carefully picking them up, Morgan winced again slightly. 

“Well, you decided to go wandering off and so a giant plant tried to eat you,” the Doctor explained, somehow keeping a straight face throughout all of the absurdity he was saying. Morgan swung her legs off of the bed at that moment, jumping onto her legs and standing upright. Bad idea! Do. Not. Try. This. At. Home!!! Pain shot up her leg and her vision tunnelled for a second before the Doctor quickly came beside her. Morgan stumbled again and leaned against the Doctor for stability as her vision cleared up. 

The Doctor held her weight as she attempted to stumble along into the kitchen, sitting down slowly into her chair. He brought some food, some toast and a blanket, sitting himself on a chair beside her. 

“So…” Morgan started, “What exactly happened? Like in a little more detail,”

“Well, the venom you know and it made you sick, so you’ve been out for a bit,” the Doctor said quickly. Morgan paused a bit to digest his words.  _ Venom sacs in the tongue.  _ Morgan snorted at the memory and was about to say the joke out loud when she paused again. Oh. Wait, he wouldn't understand the joke and if he did, how on earth would she be able to explain how she knew. She frowned a bit at that while the Doctor gave her an exasperated look. 

“Why are you doing that face?” he complained. Morgan frowned. What face? Her hands subconsciously flew to her eyes. They weren’t bulging out like Clara’s did were they? Inflating? Nope, nothing. 

“What face?” Morgan asked, cocking her head to one side. Seriously though, what face-

“I don’t know, the face! Where you’re happy and then sad all of a sudden. Why can't you just choose one?” he asked, waving his hands around a bit overdramatically. 

“None of your business,” Morgan grumbled, starting to slowly make her way to her own room, thankfully not making the pain pop up again. It took longer than usual to get to her room. Then add that with the time it took her to get dressed… Morgan paused right before leaving her small sad excuse for a room again to check the calendar. Still there on her wall and… About 5 days had been crossed out since she last saw it. With a different pen… The Doctor had- It had been a week. She had been unconscious for a week and that stupid timelord had neglected to mention that fact. Of course, he had. That stupid- Morgan almost ripped the calendar off the wall at that moment and almost hurled it across the room. Almost. She didn’t though. Although what Morgan did do next wasn’t that surprising. She stormed off (or attempted to)(why did everything still freaking hurt??) Morgan marched into the room that the Doctor was now in, as he sat by the table reading a book. 

“Why didn’t you tell me it had been a week?” Morgan spat, crossing her arms forcefully and then flinching hard, immediately regretting it. She glanced towards her arms momentarily, her stomach doing a slight flip at the notice of traces of some bruising. Clearing her throat a little Morgan brought her glare back over to the Doctor, whose face had gone into what Morgan liked to call “Oh shit my companions figured out my clever lie” face. 

“Well, I never mentioned specifics-” he started, clearly having forgotten his rehearsed speech for when she inevitably found out. Or he had forgotten to rehearse a speech for it. 

“Yeah, but you purposely ‘forgot’,” Morgan did air quotes, “Don’t try to talk your way around it, it won’t work,” Morgan stated bluntly. The Doctor stood up finally at that comment, hand on the table as he sighed. 

“I didn’t want you to worry,” he admitted and Morgan deflated slightly. Oh. Well, that did make sense…

Morgan let out a huff, “Yeah, I know just,” she paused for a second to fix her hair, then continued, “Next time, tell me the truth, I’ll get less angry if you say it outright than if you lie, or don’t mention it at all,” Morgan reasoned and the Doctor’s expression hardened slightly and his eyebrows furrowed. 

“If I remember correctly, his Scottish accent got thicker as his voice rose, “The last time I told you that we would be stuck here for six months, you shouted at me!” he hissed, his tone even but Morgan could sense the lingering annoyance and anger in his eyes. She flinched slightly but then fixed her glare at him instead. 

“No, you knew beforehand everything that might happen and you decided not to disclose that important information, that if I had known beforehand, might have not gotten us stuck here for six months,” Morgan snarled through gritted teeth, clenching her fists. She gasped a little as some pain shot up her leg but quickly covered it up, attempting to increase her glare to hide the flinch. 

“Morgan…” the Doctor started, in his ‘I made my companion angry at me but still think she has no right to be angry at me so I’m pretending to apologize’ tone. Morgan shot him a disappointed frown. 

“I’m going back to my room.” she finished, storming away as she grit her teeth from the continued throbbing in her leg and arm and the frustration. Morgan almost slammed the wall in her frustration- but she didn’t, because unlike some people, she wasn't an annoying jerkfa- God, why couldn’t the Doctor just tell everyone the facts for once? Why did he always have to go lying and scheming and hiding stuff from everyone?  _ Hypocrite.  _ Morgan winced at her internal thoughts.  _ She still hadn't told anyone about… Well anything. The show. How she knew most things that were going to happen.  _ She should. She really should. If the Doctor was anything like Morgan, he would definitely appreciate knowing sooner rather than later.  _ Unless… _

* * *

A few hours later, Morgan was sitting on her bed, in her pyjamas, staring at the wall as the minutes ticked by. It was getting late. Well, at least that's what her clock was currently telling her. She should probably go to bed now. That would be the logical thing to do now, wouldn’t it? Sighing, Morgan closed the remaining makeshift lights in her room and slid into her blankets, settling into them as she began to close her eyes. Everything was sore. And it would probably still be sore for the next few days 

Once she had plunged herself into the darkness, everything began to resurface, slowly. Her memory had been a bit foggy before, having only just woken up that day… But. Now instead of the darkness reminding her of the water (as it had a few months ago) and honestly, it still kind of did. There was a fresher memory that took its hold in the darkness. Screaming. Morgan’s hands flew to her throat. It was dry. Dry-she was sweating. But was it sweat? Or was it something more?  _ Something burning and wet. Burning layers of skin off and slowly rendering her more and more…  _ Morgan shot up quickly, breathing heavily as she fumbled to pinch herself.

She could feel it, but was it as painful as usual? Was she losing feeling in her arm or something? Or was she just overthinking it? Was she really in her room at that moment? Or was she just trying to ignore the reality around her? That happened right? People would suppress memories because they were too traumatic. Or ignore the reality because it was just too… horrible? Like Bill. When she was a Cyberman. Morgan's stomach did an uncomfortable flip.  _ One more thing she needed to change. But knowing her, she would probably fail at that too.  _

__ Thankfully something did come to interrupt her thoughts. Although he did make Morgan jump slightly, which in turn ended up hitting one of her bruises, sending shots of pain up her legs. Morgan immediately turned her face of relief from having been distracted by her thoughts to a glare. Oh great, he had decided to show his face again. Morgan narrowed her eyes. What was he doing here? Didn’t he have other things to do?  _ Honestly? Probably not.  _

Morgan frowned, “I’m still angry with you you know,” the Doctor sighed at that coming to sit on the floor beside her bed.

“Yes, I know,” he said, beginning to frown before he continued, “If it makes you feel any better, I had been planning to apologize,” he admitted and Morgan deflated slightly. Oh. Well, ok she could deal with that. But that didn’t mean she was going to forgive him immediately. Just that the timeline had gone from never forgive to forgive eventually. “And next time, I will make sure to tell you the important stuff, unless it would put someone in danger or mess up my plan.” he finished as Morgan gave a sigh. 

“Well, just know you aren’t forgiven immediately,” Morgan grumbled, “It’s gonna take some time.”

“Well, we do have a few months to spare,” he started, a grin beginning to form on his face. Morgan elbowed him playfully, although she immediately regretted it. She winced as the throbbing returned. Stupid everything hurting. 

“Don’t push your luck, Doctor,” she warned, although there was a teasing undertone to her words. A yawn was beginning to form up in her throat. Morgan took that as a sign that it was time for some shut-eye. Laying back down slowly, Morgan froze, remembering what had happened before. The Doctor, for all his lack of social skills, somehow caught on to this fact.

“I can stay a bit if you’d like, while you fall asleep,” he said nonchalantly. Morgan shot him a grateful smile.

“Thanks,” she turned on her side to get comfortable, while the Doctor pulled the remaining covers that she had messed up onto her, tucking her in. He leaned down to give her a soft kiss on the forehead as the haziness of sleep began to fill her mind. It was warm. And comforting. 

“Good night,” the Doctor whispered from where he had started to sit a little way away from her bed. Drowsiness finally began to properly set in. And Morgan finally let the heaviness take its hold. Morgan had definitely been overthinking before. Everything was fine. And this time, just this once, she wasn’t lying. 

* * *

It was a few weeks later and everything was starting to finally lose the last remnants of soreness. Morgan could easily roll her shoulders comfortably now or stretch without having to wince. Finally, maybe some real normality in her life. Morgan was putting away her dinner dishes, the Doctor sitting in the corner of a kitchen having a glaring contest with a wall. Sighing Morgan called out to him.

“Doctor, Netflix,” she called out, beginning to walk over to her room. He gave an acknowledging nod but dismissed her, waving his hand as he continued to have a glaring contest, although this time it seemed to be with just space. Oh well, she would leave him a few minutes to ponder his thoughts. But if he took too long, she would start it without him. Sighing, Morgan flopped down onto her bed, getting the laptop opening it to Netflix. She scrolled a bit trying to find what she was looking for, then froze mid search as something caught the corner of her eye. Was that Doctor Who? She shook her head and looked again. No. She was just seeing things.

But that numb feeling stayed in her chest. And there was a sudden urge there. To tell him. Everything. She had to do it eventually. Better now than later. But was now really the time? And what if her telling him somehow messed everything up?  _ No.  _ Morgan had watched enough shows and had had enough friendships to know that keeping something from someone would ever end well. And knowing the Doctor, he was bound to figure out sooner or later. Better now, with her telling it to him and explaining it to him fully, than him going on wild assumptions, possibly ending in worse consequences. So she had made a decision. And if she thought about it any more than she was now it would only end in overthinking. 

“Doctor!” Morgan called a little miffed. What was always taking him so long?  _ Staring into space is actually very time-consuming, you should try it sometime.  _ Morgan winced, her own words coming to bite her in the back. Morgan was shocked out of the thoughts, however by a Doctor running slightly panicked into the room. 

She raised an eyebrow, “Why’d you run like that? Scratch that, why are you even running in the first place?” Morgan added, furrowing her eyebrows and scrunching her nose. Why had he been running? He normally didn’t do that… 

“I uh-” he cleared his throat, “It gets me places faster,” he explained. Really? Well wasn’t that a terrible excuse. “You’re doing alright?” he asked and Morgan frowned. 

“Yeah, why wouldn't I be?” Morgan asked, cocking her head to one side. Strange, that was uncharacteristic of him. Or he was just trying to change the subject. Knowing him, it was that last one. 

“I don’t know, you lot do tend to wander off a lot,” he muttered while Morgan snorted a bit at that, resting her head on his shoulder right as he was getting settled ready to watch some Netflix.  _ It was now or never.  _

__ “Doctor,” she broke the silence just as he was about to click the play button. He turned at the sound of her voice, raising an eyebrow from beside her. 

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should be out next Sunday so stay tuned! Feel free to add any comments down below! hopefully, everyone enjoyed the chapter! And goodnight to you all (or good morning)


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